


It's Not Over

by Cynder2013



Series: Superboy and the Invisible Girl [1]
Category: DCU (Comics), Teen Titans (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, American Sign Language, Blood, DC doesn't have canon, F/F, F/M, Gun Violence, I think I broke the timeline, I'm basically rewriting so a bunch of DC stuff is going to get mixed in here, Implied Sexual Content, Injury, Multi, Old Fic, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Permanent Injury, Polyamory, Pre-New 52, Team as Family, Unrealistic Security, Unrealistic Technology, genius kids, yup timeline broke
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-18
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:56:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 24,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25339480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cynder2013/pseuds/Cynder2013
Summary: Superboy meets invisible girl and both their lives take a turn from there.(Originally written from May 2015 to June 2017. Currently being rewritten/heavily edited.)
Relationships: Bart Allen & Tim Drake & Kon-El | Conner Kent & Cassie Sandsmark, Cassie Sandsmark/Original Female Character(s), Kon-El | Conner Kent/Cassie Sandsmark, Kon-El | Conner Kent/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Superboy and the Invisible Girl [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1835158
Kudos: 3





	1. In Which Buildings Have Bad Security

It was late at night. The streets of San Francisco, California were still busy, though not as busy as they would be during the day. Taxi drivers made their rounds, most of them only an hour or so away from calling it a night. A few personal vehicles—cars, motorcycles and such—travelled through the streets, their drivers wanting to make it home as soon as they could. In doorways, alleys, and bus stops men, women and children slept, as the warm summer weather made it safe enough for the city’s homeless to remain outside overnight. On one side of the city, the tower containing the S.T.A.R. Labs metahuman research facility was lit up like a Christmas tree. On the other side of the city, windows in Titans Tower were also lit up, albeit fewer than at S.T.A.R. Labs. For both scientists and superheroes, work was never finished.

The sidewalks were almost empty, which meant that Trivia and Carpenter had to walk at a leisurely pace in order to not draw attention. “ _Here,”_ Carpenter signed. He gestured to the alleyway that they were about to pass. “We can take a shortcut,” he said out loud.

The two of them stopped walking. Trivia looked around like she was trying to see what was around them. Really, she was checking to see if they were being followed or if there were police around. Not seeing either, she shrugged and then nodded.

They walked into the alley. As soon as they were out of sight of the street Trivia ducked behind a dumpster and extracted the bag that she’d hidden there that morning. As she pulled the black tracksuit that it contained on over her shorts and T-shirt, Carpenter unearthed his own bag and checked its contents. They replaced the bags, sacks really, with the large purse or backpack that they had been carrying. Once they had both gotten dressed and pulled ski masks over their faces, Carpenter led Trivia to a door that was poorly hidden behind a sheet of plywood. _“Do your magic.”_

Trivia nodded and reached into her pocket to pull out a set of lock picking tools. She studied the lock, picked out a tool, and went to work. Carpenter kept a lookout and ten seconds later Trivia was opening the door. She put the tools away.

Carpenter entered first. He had his tablet out and was rapidly hacking the building’s security system. Trivia pulled the sheet of plywood back over the door as she closed it behind her. They had studied for this. They knew that the door they had entered by was not connected to an electronic system of any kind and they knew that there wouldn’t be any security cameras for the next few metres. Mechanics Bank’s building did not have the best security, which was why Trivia and Carpenter had chosen it for their third hit. It also helped that the building’s blueprints were available online.

 _“Forty-five minutes,”_ Carpenter signed after he tucked his tablet under his arm.

 _“Left, right, left?”_ Trivia wanted to make sure. She didn’t have as good of a memory as her brother. Carpenter nodded and the two of them trotted carefully through the hallways until they reached the area behind the bank’s front desks. Trivia immediately headed for the locked boxes in the cupboards under the desks, popping them open and clearing them of cash. Carpenter kept a lookout, occasionally updating her on the time remaining before what security system there was kicked back in.

Carpenter tapped Trivia’s shoulder to get her attention. _"Thirty minutes.”_ They’d agreed that they wanted to leave with time remaining to throw the police off their trail.

Trivia nodded. She dumped the contents of the last box into her bag and put it back in its cupboard. The two of them then hurried back through the back of the bank and out into the alley. Trivia put the sack of money into her purse and dumped her tracksuit on top. She carefully made sure that everything in the alley was placed the same as it had been when they arrive, and then looked at Carpenter, who was tapping away on his tablet. He was making select traffic cameras for miles around black out so that they would be able to leave the alley and get back to their ‘hideout’ without being spotted.

It might have been overkill since they didn’t really have very far to go, but they had just robbed a bank. Personally, Trivia was fine with overkill and Carpenter didn’t mind since it only took him about two minutes. When he finished they looked at each other sadly and headed out into the night. 

Blocks away, several dozen screens in a windowless room went black. The man watching them, who had been in the process of nodding off, let out a shout and shot his hand forwards to grab the phone. Quickly, he dialed the number that he’d been calling a lot in the past month. 

“Mr. Neway, it’s happened again!” the man exclaimed when the phone on the other end was answered.

Mr. Neway sighed and rested his forehead in his free hand. “Call the police, Carl,” he ordered. “Maybe this time they’ll actually catch the thief.”

* * *

David An looked over his shoulder at his little sister. “Everything is taken care of. You can stop shadowing me.” He stopped at a computer station, poured a cup of coffee from the pot on his cart, added a splash of milk, and handed it to the man at the station.

“Thanks David,” the man said.

“You’re welcome.” David went back to pushing the S.T.A.R. Labs drinks cart. As part of his job as a S.T.A.R. Labs intern he went around to all the food-allowed work stations on Level Four three times a day and delivered drinks to the workers. After five weeks at S.T.A.R. Labs San Francisco he had learned everyone’s drink preferences, so it was easy for him to keep talking to his sister while he worked.

Note: That would actually be difficult for most people because it involved looking over his shoulder in short intervals to catch the ASL signs that she was using.

 _“What?”_ Delilah asked. _“You embarrassed to have your baby sister with you at work? With all the time we’ve spent planning you should be used to having me around.”_ She kept her face impassive as her brother twitched and nearly poured coffee on his hand. Honestly, they’d been practising their interrogation forms for weeks and that was the best he could do? At least he’d managed to stay expressionless.

“Delilah,” he hissed after he placed the coffee on Walter Scott’s desk. She looked at him innocently.

 _“Were you indulging me? Just letting me talk about going to med school after my undergrad? Is it because we don’t have enough money? You know the court stuff is still getting finished and I could get a job if you were less overprotective.”_ She was only two years younger than him, but her bother acted like such a dad sometimes. A real dad who cared about his kids and always wanted to keep them safe, not a father who left his family after his wife was permanently injured in a car crash and got a divorce after his kids found out that he had another teenage daughter with another woman. 

David sighed. He poured hot water over a chamomile teabag. “Delilah, Mom and I are both glad that you’re planning for your future, but we barely managed to pay for your first year and my third year. It’s only going to get more expensive so…”

 _“Don’t count chickens.”_ Delilah finished with a frown. _“I know, it’s just, with everything that’s going on I,”_ She ducked her head and her hand signs flashed quickly as she finished her sentence. _“I wanted something to look forward to.”_

With that confession out, David and Delilah finished the drinks run in silence. Delilah actually abandoned her bother halfway through to have a chat with Beth Wilder, a researcher who was currently packing up her station in preparation for her transfer to S.T.A.R. Labs Metropolis. David couldn’t actually see what Delilah was saying, but judging from the sounds of agreement from Mrs. Wilder they were talking about how annoying the men in their lives were.

It was an open secret that Beth Wilder and her husband hated each other as much as they loved each other, though it was sometimes difficult to tell which was what.

After he put the cart away, David found his sister and asked her if she would check on their mother. She rolled her eyes. _“You know she doesn’t like us checking in on her every five minutes. She’s at the library, what’s the worst that could happen?”_

“The Teen Titans are here for a reason,” David reminded her. Delilah picked up her bag and shut down the computer that she had been using.

 _“I’ll go,”_ she told him. _“But don’t think I don’t know that you just want me gone so you can lurk around the project on Level Seven.”_ That was very true. Delilah wasn’t allowed access to the upper levels of the building (anything higher than Level Six was completely closed to anyone who didn’t have an employee card), and the project that was happening on Level Seven absolutely fascinated David, though he refused to tell Delilah what it was.

Damn S.T.A.R. Labs policy.

A breeze blew her braid over her shoulder as Delilah left S.T.A.R. Labs. As she sifted it back into place, a flash of light from her ring finger caught her eye. She looked with surprise at the sliver ring with a row of three light blue gemstones that was on her finger. She vaguely remembered finding it in her bag and, intending to turn it over to the police, putting it on so that she wouldn’t lose it. Didn’t she give it to the police? She was sure she had, but there it was, still on her finger. Was she really that scatterbrained? Not normally.

Delilah shook her head at herself and walked towards the bus stop. When the bus arrived she asked the driver where the nearest police station was and got off the bus at the stop closest to it. After taking a few steps in the direction of the station she looked down at her hand and blinked in surprise when she saw that the ring was gone. She had been holding a pole on the bus with that hand, and she realized that she hadn’t seen the ring then either. It hadn’t fallen off. It fit too well for that.

 _‘I guess I did give it to the police,’_ she thought, as she turned around to walk the half block to the public library. _‘My eyes must be playing tricks on me.’_

But, as she walked, she couldn’t help glancing down at her hand, sure that she would see silver and blue glinting at her. It still felt like that the ring was on her finger, even though it was totally invisible.


	2. In Which People Fall Out of the Sky

Trivia crept through the dark. She didn’t know how Carpenter had managed to plunge the entire city into a power outage but it was working well for her. All she had to do was avoid the hospitals, where the power was still on courtesy of Carpenter not turning it out in the first place, and she could move around without anyone seeing her.

Hey, it was their last robbery. Go big or go home.

‘ _Of course, this wouldn’t be happening if Carpenter hadn’t taken stacks of_ yen _instead of American dollars,’_ she thought grumpily. That had made the first robbery a complete waste of time because they couldn’t deposit the money anywhere. They had eventually just ended up dumping it in an alleyway not far from the bank they had stolen it from. Needless to say Trivia hadn’t allowed Carpenter to do any of the actual stealing after that.

She reached the door of the bank and looked carefully over each shoulder and into the sky before she opened it. No alarm went off and she almost sighed with relief. The lock was electronic and they had been pretty sure that the bank didn’t have any backup generators, but it was still good to know that this could be a quick in-and-out job.

She should have known not to be so optimistic.

Just as she was about to go inside, air rushed past her and she found herself on the roof of the bank face to face with a hovering boy.

‘ _Superboy_ ,’ she amended when she caught sight of the red S-shield on his black shirt. She did her best not to sigh. _‘Wonderful.’_

“So, you’re our thief,” Superboy said eventually.

Trivia pursed her lips behind her ski mask. ‘ _Gee, what was your first clue?’_ She looked carefully over the edge of the roof, trying to judge how far it was to the ground. She knew that she wouldn’t be able to outrun Superboy, but she wasn’t going to let herself get caught without at least trying to get away. Of course, Superboy saw where she was looking and immediately scooped her up, flying up high into the sky while she kicked her legs uselessly.

While Trivia struggled to breath in the thin air, Superboy began flying towards the police station. When she realized this Trivia once again began struggling to free herself while simultaneously thanking every god in existence that she hadn’t allowed Carpenter to come with her. One of them getting arrested and charged would be bad, but both of them would break their mother’s heart. She didn’t even notice that it was getting easier to breath. She was just concentrating on figuring out how not to die once she did get Superboy to let her go.

“Do you want me to drop you?” Superboy exclaimed as Trivia wriggled like a worm in his grasp.

‘ _Yes, actually,’_ Trivia thought as she braced her arms and swung her body upwards, kicking Superboy in the face. Superboy reflexively stood up and his hands shot in front of his face to block any more blows. In the process he sort of dropped the thief.

She fell.

If Trivia could have screamed, she would have. 

* * *

Superboy didn’t hesitate for a second before diving after the falling thief. Sure they had stolen millions of dollars, but he didn’t want them dead.

His com unit chose that moment to chime. He answered grudgingly. “Kind of busy!” he shouted to whoever was calling.

“Are you chasing the thief?” Robin asked.

Superboy looked at the thief, who was falling spreadeagled like a skydiver. “Sort of. Call back la—” Superboy stopped talking with his mouth wide open. He was now below the thief because the thief had stopped falling and was hovering in the sky like a kite. They blinked like they just realized that they were no longer reaching terminal velocity and then they wobbly began to fly back in the direction they’d come.

“Superboy? Superboy? Conner, are you there?” Robin demanded.

Superboy groaned. “Of course they fly,” he muttered.

“Conner? Who flies?” Robin asked. “Conner!”

Superboy began to fly towards the thief, who sped up as soon as they noticed him following. He cursed and flew faster. “Busy!”

“I’m going to ask Wonder Girl to give you a hand,” Robin said carefully after a pause. “I’ll call you back.” He hung up.

Superboy chased after the thief and quickly became frustrated. He managed to close the distance between them slightly but even at his fastest he wasn’t able to catch up with them. Seriously, he flies as fast as the Flash can run and he can’t catch a person who’s probably just started flying. It made no sense.

About as much sense as the thief stopping when they were extremely far ahead and waiting for him to catch up.

He wondered if she, and he could see that 'she' was likely the pronoun to use unless told otherwise, was from Gotham because she really just seemed to be showing off her new outfit. It was still black and her face was still completely covered, but she was now wearing a skin-tight bodysuit that covered every inch of her skin, tall boots, and long gloves. An image of a purple, vaguely star-shaped flower was on the bodysuit in the centre of her chest. Poison Ivy’s 'daughter' maybe? Superboy was tempted to call Robin to see if he could ID her. She continued waiting and he screeched to a stop three feet in front of her.

“Are you giving up?” he asked. She shook her head and threw a punch at his face which he quickly blocked. He didn’t manage to dodge the kick to the gut that she sent at the same time but that just felt like getting hit with a slow-moving soccer ball would to regular people. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes. This wouldn’t take very long, he thought.

He was wrong.

When he grabbed the thief’s wrists and held them together she, in a move worthy of Black Canary, flipped him over her shoulder and sent him flying five feet towards the ground. When he caught himself she flew towards him and kicked him in the chest. The force sent him spiralling down again, and this time he wasn’t able to fight his momentum and crash-landed in the roof of an apartment building. “Oof!”

He really hated obeying the laws of physics.

He pushed himself up and saw the thief land on the roof in front of him. Why hadn’t she just flown away? It would have been the sensible thing to do. It was looking more and more likely that she was from Gotham. Robin was hardly sensible half the time and he was one of the good guys. Smart, yes, a brilliant strategist, but not sensible.

Though, by that logic, all of the Titans were from Gotham.

Superboy stood and the thief held her hands up in fists in front of her. “Do you really want to do this?” Superboy asked.

The thief cocked her head and vanished.

 _Vanished,_ like turned completely invisible. None of Superboy’s senses could tell where she was. Seriously, how many more tricks did this girl have?

A gale force blast of wind hit him from behind and he stumbled forwards. Then a funnel cloud picked him up and began tossing him around uncontrollably.

At least one more trick then.

Just as he was about to escape from the miniature tornado, the wind stopped. He fell towards the roof _again_ but this time he managed to fly up and land in a way that didn’t cause cracks in the concrete.

“Hi Superboy,” Wonder Girl said. The thief was tied up with Wonder Girl’s lasso and she seemed to have stopped flying when she was caught, probably from both literal and emotional shock. Wonder Girl pulled up on her lasso but she wasn’t fast enough to stop the thief from striking her head hard on the roof. Superboy went over to her and saw that the blow had knocked her out.

“Great.” He looked up at Wonder Girl. “So, what do we do now? We can’t just dump her at the police station. She’s a meta.”

Wonder Girl flew down and landed on the roof beside him. “We’ll take her back to the Tower. I have a feeling Robin’s going to want to interrogate her.”

Superboy grinned. “You mean _you_ want to interrogate her. Why?”

Wonder Girl shook her head. “I’ll tell you later. Let’s go.”

Superboy picked up the unconscious girl. Wonder Girl left her wrapped in the lasso just in case she woke up before they got to Titans Tower. Together they flew towards the bay.

* * *

Trivia let out a mental groan when she woke up. It had been her first time flying so she supposed she could be forgiven for loosing levitation when given a paralyzing electric shock, but she could have done without knocking herself out. Light shone through her eyelids, making her headache even worse. She tried to lift her hand up to rub her eyes but found that, judging from the metallic clinking, she was handcuffed to the chair she was seated in.

“Guys, she’s awake,” a female voice said.

Trivia forced her eyes open and managed to make out the forms of three people past the spots that clouded her vision. There was one girl and two boys, all of whom were probably around her age. One of the boys came towards her and held up three fingers.

“How many fingers am I holding up?” he asked. Trivia flexed her fingers and then made the sign for the number three with her right hand. The boy nodded. “Can you actually see my face?”

“She didn’t even say anything, Robin,” the other boy interrupted. Trivia recognized his voice as Superboy’s and guessed that the girl, whose blonde hair was one thing that she could actually see, was Wonder Girl.

“Sign language, Superboy,” Robin said. “Can you see me?”

 _“No,”_ Trivia signed, raising her hand as far as she could so that the motion was visible. The spots dancing across her vision had started to fade but they had been replaced with fuzzy smears of colour. _‘I’m going to take a wide guess and say I have a concussion,’_ she thought sarcastically.

“I think you have a concussion,” Robin said.

‘ _Thank you Captain Obvious.’_ Her vision was actually starting to clear up, which made her wonder just how long she had been unconscious. Her head was still pounding though.

“Can she still answer questions?” Superboy asked.

“You know what a concussion is, Superboy,” Wonder Girl said. “She needs to rest before we ask her anything.”

“We haven’t even seen her face! How do we know that she’s not a serial killer?” Superboy said.

“She’s been robbing banks, not killing people,” Wonder Girl pointed out.

Trivia grimaced. Her face was still covered by the costume that had appeared when she’d started flying but as she was caught anyway… She steeled herself and concentrated. ‘ _The hell with it. I just have to figure out how—’_ Her skin prickled and she felt the stifling woollen ski mask replace the thin fabric covering her face. _‘Oh, that’s how.’_

Robin took the semi-obvious invitation and pulled the ski mask off her head. “Not a serial killer,” he announced. “Dalilah An, her brother works for S.T.A.R Labs. She has Level Five security clearance.”

 _‘That was, what, two seconds? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, he is the bloody Boy Wonder.’_ Dalilah thought. Then ‘ _When the hell did I become British?’_

Superboy groaned. “I almost got beaten by a science geek.” Wonder Girl coughed. “A science geek who isn’t Robin,” he amended.

Robin smirked, and then walked over to a cupboard and began rifling through it. Judging by the row of beds and the abundance of the colour white Delilah figured that they were in some sort of clinic, or maybe an infirmary. Infirmary seemed more likely. Somewhere in Titans Tower perhaps? She couldn’t think of anywhere else the three teen heroes would have access to without question.

“What makes you think she’s a ‘science geek’?” Wonder Girl asked.

“She has security clearance at S.T.A.R Labs, enough said.”

“You have security clearance at S.T.A.R Labs.”

“That’s different,” Superboy said.

Wonder Girl raised an eyebrow. At least Delilah thought that she did. “Is it?”

Robin came back with an unopened bottle of water and a bottle of Tylenol. He motioned to Delilah, who held out her hand. She swallowed the offered pills and about half the water. 

“It is, because I never go there.” Superboy looked at Robin and jerked his thumb towards Delilah. “What are we going to do with her?” he asked, the tone of his voice clearly stating that he was annoyed. Hey, being locked up in Titans Tower wasn’t exactly how Delilah wanted to spend her Saturday night either. 

- _‘Her’ is right here,-_ she thought acidly in his direction. She successfully hid her surprise when Superboy shouted and held his head.

“What’s wrong?” Wonder Girl asked quickly.

Superboy grimaced and looked at Delilah. “She’s a psychic,” he spat. “That’s it, I’m out of here.” He walked past Delilah and she heard the whooshing of doors swinging as he left.

Delilah blinked and looked back and forth between Wonder Girl and Robin questioningly. - _Was it something I said?-_

Wonder Girl yelped in surprise. “Did you hear that?” she asked Robin. Robin nodded and studied Delilah from behind his blank white lenses. Delilah unsuccessfully resisted her instinct to writhe in discomfort. Those eyes that his mask gave him were freaky.

“Try that again,” he told her.

She blinked at him. _“Try what again?”_ she signed, or attempted to sign as the handcuffs limited how much she could sign completely. Robin seemed to understand though.

“Telepathy,” he said shortly.

“You were speaking in our heads,” Wonder Girl translated. “Can you do it again?”

Delilah shrugged. She concentrated on her task, just like when she had been trying to get rid of her costume, and then _pushed_ her thoughts towards Wonder Girl. - _Can you hear me?-_ she tried.

“Yes,” Wonder Girl answered. “That’s so weird. Don’t mind Superboy, he has this weird problem with telepaths. ”

- _Aren’t Martians telepathic?-_ Delilah asked, remembering the fact that Martian Manhunter was part of the Justice League, which occasionally worked with the Teen Titans.

“Well, yes but…” Wonder Girl put a hand to her forehead. “This is a lot.”

Robin produced a key and unlocked Delilah’s handcuffs. She reflexively rubbed her wrists. ‘ _Am I free to go?’_ she tried to ask. However, she could tell that neither of them had received the message. She signed the same question with a quirky smile to show that she was joking.

“Wonder Girl, could she stay in your room for the night?” Wonder Girl nodded. “Make sure to wake her up every hour.” Robin looked at Delilah. “And you are not going to run away.”

“- _We both know that I could have tried to escape five times before now,-”_ Delilah said and signed at the same time.

Wonder Girl rolled her eyes towards the ceiling. “Mother of Zeus,” she muttered. Then she pulled Delilah out of the chair and pushed her towards the door. “Good night!” she exclaimed over her shoulder to Robin. “Good night!”

* * *

Cassie and Conner were trying to eavesdrop on Robin’s interrogation of Delilah. Trying and failing, because Conner was the only one of them with super hearing and the conversation going on inside the interrogation room (aka Robin’s lab) was one-sided.

“I don’t like this,” Cassie whispered from where she was crouching near a crack between the door and the door frame. “They’ve been in there for too long.”

“Shh,” Conner replied, his ear pressed to the door. He listened carefully and Cassie held her breath. Suddenly his eyes widened. “He can’t do that!” he whispered. Then he blinked. “Get back!”

The two of them rushed away from the door until they were on the other side of the hallway, leaning against the wall and pretending that they had just been staring at the door to Robin’s lab the entire time. Robin looked at them as soon as he and Delilah exited the lab. Robin, unlike the rest of the Titans currently in the Tower, was dressed in his costume rather than civvies and his friends managed not to flinch as he stared them down with blank eyes.

“Nice try guys,” he said.

Conner stopped pretending to be innocent. He advanced on Robin. “You can’t do this,” he insisted. “You can’t.”

“I already have, Conner,” Robin said. “It’s the best thing for everyone.”

“Why, why is it the best thing? And why didn’t you ask us first?” Conner demanded.

Cassie looked at Delilah, who was nervously watching the exchange between the two boys. The ring on her right hand flashed as she wrapped her arms around her rib cage.

“Can you tell me what they’re talking about?” Cassie asked as the argument became louder.

- _Robin asked me to join the team,-_ Delilah replied. - _And I said yes.-_

Cassie blinked. Robin started darting down the hallway with Conner attempting to catch him. “Well,” Cassie said, “welcome to the team.”

There was a shout as Raven and Gar entered the hallway and attempted to break the two boys apart. Cassie and Delilah both looked at the rapidly accelerating argument. Delilah uncrossed her arms and raised her hands in front of her. One flick of her fingers later and Conner and Robin were flying backwards away from each other. Cassie pressed herself against the wall as wind rushed past and Conner went tumbling through the air down to the end of the hallway, which was a pretty long way.

Raven looked towards them and Cassie had the feeling that she had sensed the magic that Delilah had just used, Cassie certainly had. “Thank you for your help,” Raven said to Delilah. 

- _I guess I’m one of you now,-_ Delilah said lightly. Gar jumped in surprise and Cassie knew that Delilah had projected her thought to everyone she could see. She looked back and forth between the two ends of the hallway and saw that both Conner and Robin were sitting up and rubbing their heads. The two of them were looking at each other sheepishly. They hadn’t gotten into an actual fight in a long time.

“Yeah,” Cassie said. “You’re definitely one of us.”


	3. In Which Robin Beats Everyone Up

When Cassie prepared to knock on the door of Delilah’s room she was only slightly surprised by the - _Come in.-_ that sounded in her mind. She opened the door and saw that Delilah was in full costume and glaring at herself in the mirror.

“How’d you know I was there?” Cassie asked.

- _I could sense you,-_ Delilah replied. - _I have no idea how.-_ That wasn’t surprising, she had only had powers for a day.

Cassie walked further into the room and went to stand beside her. “Are you busy? A bunch of us are going to have sparring practice to kill some time until Cyborg and Starfire get back. You could join us, meet more of the team.”

Delilah nodded. _-I’ve been trying to get my costume to change but…-_ She gestured towards her reflection. Cassie couldn’t really tell past the tight black balaclava but she was pretty sure that Delilah was grimacing.

“You’ll get it eventually,” she said as the costume was replaced by track pants and a T-shirt. “Are you coming?”

Delilah raised an eyebrow. _-A chance to get beaten up by Robin? I wouldn’t miss it.-_

They walked through the Tower towards the gym. Cassie looked sideways at the other girl and saw that she was constantly surveying the area around her like she was waiting for an attack to come.

“So, where in the city are you from?” she eventually asked.

Delilah began signing her answer but quickly remembered that Cassie didn’t know sign language. _-I’m not from San Francisco. I’m Canadian.-_

“Oh,” Cassie said. “Well, where in Canada are you from?”

Delilah looked carefully at Cassie. _–Finley, Ontario,-_ she replied. _–What about you?-_

“Gateway City, California.”

_-You have a great museum there, don’t you?-_

Cassie nodded. “My mom works there.” She looked back at Delilah. “I have a theory.”

_-About what?-_

“About your powers.” Delilah stopped walking and Cassie didn’t notice until she had left her ten feet behind her. She turned back. “Are you okay?”

Delilah gave her head a shake. _-Yeah.-_ She continued walking like nothing had happened. _-What’s your theory?-_ She had been wracking her brain for a reason for her to suddenly have superpowers. She knew that they probably had something to do with being dropped out of the sky but she thought that that was only a trigger. She didn’t know how she had gotten them in the first place.

“I’m sure that they’re based in godly magic because I could sense it when you threw Robin and Conner down the hall. I think that they come from that ring you’re wearing. It looks like it’s Amazon made.” Cassie indicated her own bracelets for comparison.

Delilah looked at her with confusion. _-Cassie, I’m not wearing a ring.-_

Cassie was stunned. She _was_ wearing a sliver ring right there on her right hand. It was impossible for her to deny it. “What do you mean you’re not wearing a ring? Look at your hand!” Cassie pointed at the ring.

Delilah looked and shook her head. _-Cassie, there’s nothing there. I did find a ring a few weeks ago but…-_ Her mouth slowly dropped open as that very ring materialized on her finger. _-How…?-_

“Magic,” Cassie said, as Delilah could obviously see the ring now.

 _-Oh.-_ Delilah looked stunned. She raised and then lowered her hand in another aborted sign. _-Do you...know a lot about that?-_

“Raven would know more,” Cassie said. “I’ve got some books I could lead you though.”

After a few moments, Delilah nodded. _-That would be nice. Thank you.-_

Cassie smiled. “No problem.”

The majority of the Titans who were currently in the Tower were in the gym. They were watching the ongoing match between Robin and Conner. Delilah was happy about that because it meant both that she and Cassie could enter unnoticed and that Conner wasn’t able to scowl at her, which was what he’d been doing every time they ran into each other. 

“Go Robin!” Bart cheered.

“Come on, Superboy!” Gar retaliated. The fight ended when Robin drove Conner into the mats and put him in a headlock. Bart and Gar cheered loudly. So did everyone else. Robin helped Conner to his feet.

“Good job,” Robin said.

“Thanks.” Conner noticed that Delilah was watching and, wait for it, scowled at her.

“Hey, new girl!” Gar called from across the room. He managed to draw the attention of everyone else in the room towards her. Under the deluge of gazes Delilah blushed and vanished.

“Delilah?” Cassie asked while some of the others gasped. She didn’t know why, they’d seen stranger things than a girl who could become invisible.

 _-I’m here,-_ Delilah replied. _-Do they all really have to stare?-_

Cassie realized that the bank robber who was driving all the security personal in the city crazy was _shy._ She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “Come on, Delilah. I’ll introduce you.” She looked towards Robin and Conner and gave them a _look_.

“Best two out of three?” Robin offered. Conner sighed and rolled his eyes but agreed to another match with a wry smile. While they were duking it out Cassie led Delilah around the room and introduced her to everyone. Bart was a bit too enthusiastic as was Gar but by the time they made it to Mia, Delilah had rendered herself visible and didn’t look like she wanted to fly out the window.

“So, what’s your name going to be?” Mia asked.

Delilah shrugged. _-I haven’t really thought about it to be honest.-_

“What about Invisible Girl?” Bart suggested. Delilah wrinkled her nose.

“The Unseen,” Gar proposed in a deep, TV announcer voice. Delilah and Raven each cracked a smile and Cassie and Mia laughed quietly. 

_-I don’t think so.-_

“Oof!” Conner was slammed into the mat by Robin again. “Ms. Twister,” he spat out when Robin let him rise.

 _-Maybe.-_ Conner looked at her, surprised that she actually liked his sarcastic suggestion. She gave him a look that said “I don’t think you’re an idiot; I just dislike you on principle” or something along those lines.

“Ventus,” Robin said as he wiped imaginary sweat off of his face with a towel. “It’s Latin for wind.”

“I like that,” Cassie said.

Delilah just shrugged. _-I’ll pick something eventually.-_

Conner groaned as he rolled his shoulders. “I surrender, Robin. Pick someone else to beat up, please.” On cue everyone looked at Delilah. She looked around dramatically like she expected someone to be standing behind her.

_-Fine, I volunteer as the next punching bag.-_

Bart and Gar applauded. Mia and Cassie elbowed them.

Delilah stepped up to the mat. Robin turned around and threw a bo staff at her, which she caught easily with both hands. “Okay, new girl, let’s see what you can do.”

The answer to that was practically nothing.

Delilah had been practising Kali, a Filipino martial art that was extremely useful because you learned to fight with and without weapons, since she was twelve but that was the only thing she really knew how to use. Robin knew Kali plus everything else. Therefore she held her own but got clobbered after about five minutes.

“Good job,” Mia told her after Cassie handed her a bottle of water.

Delilah nodded before remembering that she could talk to her even if she didn’t know ASL. _-Thanks.-_

Even Conner gave her a pained smile, though with no little insistence from Cassie. “You…lasted longer than I thought you would,” he admitted. Delilah smirked at him and he stuck his tongue out at her.

Gar and Bart began doing rock paper scissors to see which of them would take on Robin next. When they tied for the third time, Pantha’s voice came over the Tower’s intercom. “Attention, Teen Titans. Captain Cold, the Golden Glider, Weather Wizard, and Heat Wave are attacking S.T.A.R Labs. Suit up and get your butts there right now.”

Conner, Cassie, Robin and Delilah looked at each other. Delilah’s costume replaced her clothes. A window blew open and she flew out.

“I’ll go after her,” Robin said. “The rest of you follow as soon as you’re ready.”

“Sir, yes sir!” Bart said, speeding out of the room.

Robin made his way up to the open window. He jumped out and unfolded a gilder that he used to fly himself into the city.

“Let’s go,” Conner ordered. “Quickly!”

Cassie smirked. “And you say you never go to S.T.A.R Labs.”

* * *

Of course the building was on fire. The new girl turned invisible as soon as she saw smoke and rammed feet-first into the man with the flamethrower who was blasting fire into an office from a window cleaning platform. He fell sideways and lost his grip on his flamethrower, which broke away from him and fell four stories to the ground. The new girl looked into the office.

- _Robin, the tower’s on fire and the sprinklers aren’t going on.-_

Robin, who was about a block away when he got the new girl’s message, cursed. He pressed his com unit. “Superboy, Raven, Kid Flash, S.T.A.R Labs is on fire. I need you to go inside and make sure everyone gets out.”

“Roger that,” Kid Flash replied.

“On my way,” Raven told him.

“Got it,” Superboy confirmed. “Are you there?”

“Nearly. The new girl told me.” He could practically feel the scowl that Superboy was giving. And he and the new girl had been getting along just fine a few moments ago.

“Be careful,” Superboy told Robin before signing off. Robin landed behind Weather Wizard, who was using the wind to stoke the fire. He discarded his glider and tapped Weather Wizard on the shoulder. The man turned around, surprised. 

“Hi,” Robin said before punching him in the face. Weather Wizard went down like a sack of potatoes.

The new girl was busy on the window washing platform trying to contain Heat Wave without making the fire worse. She looked around after dodging what could have been a lucky punch on Heat Wave’s part and realized something. _-Robin, weren’t there supposed to be four of them?-_

Yes, yes there were.

“Titans, keep an eye out for Captain Cold and the Golden Gilder,” Robin ordered over his communicator. “The new girl and I can’t see them.”

The other Teen Titans made noises of understanding. They arrived on the scene at that moment. Superboy, Raven and Kid Flash immediately went into the tower and began dragging people out, sometimes literally as a lot of scientists refused to leave their projects. Seriously people, the building is on fire, you do not want to be inside it.

Wonder Girl flew up to the window washing platform and threw her lasso around Heat Wave just as the new girl kicked him in the groin. _-Thanks,-_ she heard the new girl say as she lowered Heat Wave to the ground in front of the police car that had just arrived. _-I could have knocked him off the platform but I didn’t want to accidentally kill him.-_

“Sure, new girl,” Wonder Girl said.

_-I need a better name.-_

Speedy helped Robin drag the now struggling Weather Wizard to the police. Beast Boy turned into a hawk and flew around the building trying to see where there were people trapped inside so he could let Superboy, Raven or Kid Flash know.

A fire truck arrived and firefighters began to bring the fire under control. Kid Flash continued to help them get people out, but Superboy and Raven were noticeably absent. 

Superboy’s voice came over the communicators. “Guys, we found Cold and Gilder. Level Seven. Raven’s in a block of ice! We need—” His transmission was abruptly cut off. The three human shaped Titans who had heard him looked at each other. 

“KF, Beast Boy, keep getting people out,” Robin ordered. “Wonder Girl, Speedy, new girl, Level Seven.”

 _-What’s happening?-_ asked the new girl, who hadn’t heard Superboy’s message.

“Superboy and Raven need our help,” Wonder Girl said.

On S.T.A.R Labs Level Seven the Golden Gilder was stealing files from a computer while her brother attempted to break into a triple-locked refrigerated steel cabinet. Two blocks of ice containing Raven and Superboy stood several feet away from them.

Captain Cold slammed the side of his fist into the wall in frustration as he failed, yet again, to crack the second combination lock. He couldn’t just break the cabinet open by force because the stuff they came for would be ruined if he did. “This is pointless, Lisa. We only need the files anyway.”

“You’re the one who said it would be useful to have samples,” the Golden Gilder said lightly. Her fingers flew across the keyboard. She pulled an inconspicuous USB stick out of the computer. “I’ve got everything. Let’s go.”

Just as they were turning to leave the door blew open. “Going somewhere?” Wonder Girl asked. Speedy fired two arrows. The first released ropes that wrapped around Cold and Gilder’s legs. The second ripped Cold’s cold gun from his hand.

Gilder’s skates activated. The blades cut through the ropes and she skated towards the teen heroes. She didn’t have any choice. They were blocking the only exit. A rush of air was her only warning when Robin dropped from the ceiling and knocked her down. She fell with a yelp, the USB flying from her grip.

Cold, who had retrieved his cold gun as soon as the ropes were cut, levelled a blast at Wonder Girl and Speedy, and was surprised when it was blown back towards him. He quickly dove out of the way and almost crashed into the cabinet that he had been trying to open.

 _-I’ve got Captain Cold,-_ the new girl telepathically told her teammates. _-Are Superboy and Raven going to be OK?-_

Speedy pulled two flare arrows out of her quiver. “They’re not human, they’ll be fine.”

Robin cuffed Glider’s hands behind her back, ignoring the cursing coming out of her mouth. Speedy began de-icing their teammates while Wonder Girl helped the new girl beat down Cold. Eventually the new girl just did _something_ that caused him to pass out.

“What was _that_?” Wonder Girl asked.

 _-Air pressure changes,-_ the new girl replied with surprise. _-I did not know I could do that.-_

Soon Superboy and Raven were free, Superboy noticeably grumpy, and they dragged the two criminals downstairs to the waiting police officers. No one noticed Robin picking up the USB that Glider had drooped and pocketing it.

“Well, that’s that,” Kid Flash said once he’d zipped over. He dusted his hands off pointedly.

Beast Boy glided down and changed back to his human form a few inches above the ground. “Everyone’s out,” he confirmed.

“Then we can go,” Robin said. “Before the media gets here.” The media was already there but the police were able to keep the reporters back on the grounds that they shouldn’t crowd the paramedics. Once they left it would be complete chaos.

Robin hitched a ride back to the Tower with Superboy and Speedy went with Kid Flash. When they got there Cyborg and Starfire were waiting for them. “Hello,” everyone said, in their own inimitable style.

_-Hello,-_ the new girl echoed hesitantly. Cyborg raised his eyebrow in question.

“Oh, yeah, we’ve got a new teammate,” Robin told Cyborg and Starfire.

“What’s your name?” Starfire gently asked the air to the left of the new girl, who was still invisible. She waited.

 _-My name,-_ the new girl finally decided, _-is Wallflower.-_

* * *

David was one of the S.T.A.R. Labs employees who’d ended up in the hospital. When Robin told her he also had to physically restrain Delilah so she wouldn’t go flying out a window again. Once she’d calmed down enough to listen to reason, Raven offered to go to the hospital with her. Delilah couldn’t say yes fast enough. They got permission from Cyborg and Starfire, because of course Delilah couldn’t be trusted, not yet, and then the two girls flew across the city.

When they arrived at the hospital, Raven talked to the man at the welcome desk and got directions to David’s room. Somehow, (Delilah suspected Robin’s interference but knew she’d never be able to prove it) David had a room to himself. Her idiot brother had gotten himself stabbed with a letter opener during the chaos and had needed to have air drained out of his chest cavity so his lung would stop collapsing.

“Where have you been?” David asked when Delilah paused her fussing for a second. “You were gone this morning.”

Delilah’s eyes darted to where Raven was waiting outside in the hallway. She didn’t know a lot about the girl’s powers, only that they had something to do with magic. Best to proceed with caution, i.e. assume that Raven could hear everything David said and that she knew sign language.

Lying mode, activated.


	4. In Which People Die

Being a Teen Titan was strange. The sidekicks, Young Justice and the Teen Titans had always been the heroes Delilah looked up to most. She’d grown up in the crime capital of Canada and they were kids doing what the police couldn’t, of course she was half in awe of them. So it was strange to suddenly be living with them two days a week. Cyborg and Starfire were parental. Beast Boy snored when they had movie nights and fell asleep on the couch. She and Wonder Girl worked on homework together when school was in session. Nightwing sometimes randomly dropped by Titans Tower to play pranks that started off targeting Robin but always inevitably ended up involving every Titan in the Tower. After David got a full-time job at S.T.A.R. Labs that necessitated their permanent move to San Francisco (no, Delilah didn’t really have to come with, but it was a good excuse to live somewhere safer and far away from their so-called father), Raven had a standing invitation to dinner from Delilah’s mom.

Not that Delilah's mom or David knew who Raven actually was. Secret identities and all.

So, lots of strange, mostly good, even the parts where they fought supervillains. Usually.

“Didn’t we fight these guys last week?” Superboy grumbled as he ducked behind a car to avoid being hit by another car that Mammoth hurled at him. That car flew over his head and slid along the street, sending up a shower of sparks.

“At least Psimon isn’t here,” Wonder Girl said. “Raven, left!”

Raven pivoted and deflected the bolt of magical energy Jinx had thrown at her. Wallflower blew Jinx’s feet out from under her and then ended up in an air current controlling contest with the sorceress until she was distracted by Beast Boy, who’d stung her as a wasp before attempting to immobilize her as an elephant.

Four of the Fearsome Five were tearing up the streets around Union Square. Wallflower didn’t know why they were there, but that’s what they were doing. Gizmo had a ray gun that he kept missing Robin with. When the dodged blasts hit anything, like a tree or a car, it vanished. Understandably, Robin was trying very hard not to get hit.

“Where’s Shimmer?” Kid Flash asked.

That was a question that Wallflower had learned never to ask. The more experienced heroes had learned to weaponize it. The second Kid Flash spoke the last syllable of her name Shimmer’s powers turned the asphalt under his feet into hissing hydrochloric acid. He darted out of range and Wonder Girl lassoed Shimmer out of the car she’d been hiding in.

Mammoth went flying through the air. Wallflower barely missed being bowled over by him before he crashed into the ground and left a crater in the plaza. _-Watch where you’re throwing, Superboy.-_

“Can’t exactly do that when I can’t see you,” Superboy said. He flew past Wallflower to make sure that Mammoth stayed down. The rest of the team ignored the non sequitur on the comms. They’d gotten used to hearing half conversations since Wallflower started going out with them.

Beast Boy trumpeted in alarm. A bolt of Jinx’s magic flew towards Wonder Girl’s back.

 _-Behind you!-_ Wallflower shouted. She then had to dive towards the ground to engage Jinx, who had blown Beast Boy back a hundred feet and trapped him in a sinkhole. Raven was the first choice to fight against magic users, but she was busy chasing Gizmo around while he targeted Robin.

Then Mammoth returned the favour and threw Superboy across the plaza. Superboy didn’t get a chance to catch himself and Wallflower couldn’t get out of the way before he collided with her and both of them crashed into the pavement. Wallflower’s ribs immediately protested the rough treatment. Some of them were definitely broken.

 _-Ow,-_ Wallflower complained. _-Get off me.-_

“You sound like a kindergartener,” Superboy muttered.

_-Says the six-year-old.-_

Wallflower elbowed Superboy’s back to try to get him to move. Before he could roll off of her and let her breathe again, a bright light collided with them and burned through every cell in their bodies. Superboy muffled a scream.

After a time (Wallflower would have said it was a long time, Superboy would have said only a few seconds) the light faded, taking the burning with it. Superboy and Wallflower rolled apart and got to their feet, ready to start fighting again.

Except there wasn’t anyone to fight.

Union Square was empty of civilians, there were cars and uprooted trees scattered about everywhere, but the Fearsome Five and the rest of the Teen Titans weren’t there. And the city, the city was silent.

“What the hell?” Superboy breathed.

 _-Is there anyone here?-_ Wallflower asked.

Superboy could hear heartbeats surrounding them. There were a few voices but they were quiet and scared. Something was wrong, obviously.

 _-I can’t reach Robin or Wonder Girl,-_ Wallflower said. _-There’s this...wall in the way.-_

She called it a wall, but it was more of a void, an in-between space that the metaphysical wires connecting Wallflower’s mind to those of Robin and Wonder Girl disappeared into but couldn’t cross. Superboy seemed to be on the same side of the wall as her, so that link didn’t have any problems.

“What about Raven?” Superboy asked. Wallflower and Raven were sometimes able to share flickers of two-way telepathy, but it didn’t happen often.

Wallflower shook her head. Superboy cursed.

While they were discovering that they’d been cut off from the rest of their team, both Superboy and Wallflower had been scanning their surroundings. Superboy, with his enhanced senses, was the first to notice someone coming towards them. “Disappear,” he said.

Wallflower immediately went invisible. _-Do you want recon?-_

Superboy nodded.

Wallflower took to the air. _-I see one person flying in from the west, dark hair, black and grey suit, no cape. And Titan’s Tower, which shouldn’t have a fence.-_

The fence around Titan’s Tower was something they would have to deal with later. The visitor they were waiting for stopped flying a dozen feet away from Superboy. It was a good thing that Wallflower was invisible because she took longer to recover from his appearance than Superboy. Superboy had previous experience with doppelgangers.

“Who are you?” the boy with Superboy’s face and a grey Superman shield on his chest demanded.

Superboy met his doppelganger’s glare. “Don’t you know the answer to that? We match.”

“You’re out of date.” The doppelganger’s lips twisted into something that could be considered a smile. “Did Batman make you? I didn’t know he could get nostalgic.”

“Cadmus created, Young Justice raised,” Superboy said. “Are you future me or did I land on an alternate Earth?”

“Alternate Earth,” the doppelganger said almost immediately. The speed of that answer was definitely suspicious.

Superboy crossed his arms. “So, what are the chances that you aren’t evil and will happily point me in the direction of someone who can help me get home?”

 _-He’s got someone with him,-_ Wallflower said. _-The air...Duck!-_

Superboy ducked and rolled. A rush of air whooshed through the place where he’d been standing. Wallflower dove towards the disturbance and bodily threw the invisible attacker to the ground. A girl in a black suit flickered into view. Wallflower wasn’t even surprised to see the shape of her own face behind the other girl’s white-eyed domino mask. An alternate Earth wasn’t something she’d dealt with before, but she’d read the briefings.

“Venta!” Likely Evil Superboy went from hovering to rocketing towards the place where Wallflower would have been if she hadn’t flown straight up in a preemptive effort to get out of range. Instead, Superboy flew up to meet him and the two half-Kryptonian boys grappled in the air.

Venta got to her feet with a snarl on her face. She raised her hands and a windstorm sprung up that threw Wallflower around until she was dizzy but left Venta and the two boys unruffled. Wallflower would have tried to take control of the storm if she hadn’t crashed into one of the scattered cars and ended up with a concussion to go with her broken ribs. Staying invisible and in the air was more than enough for her to concentrate on, though she did somehow have the capacity to be uncommonly pleased when she saw that even her doppelganger was stuck with a mandrake flower on her suit. Wallflower had tried to get rid of that thing, but her progress with her suit had stalled after she’d gotten a domino mask and a more interesting colour palatte, sky blue with black stripes from ankle to wrist and wrist to shoulder.

The windstorm was loud. It was so loud that the motorcycle came as a surprise to everyone except the man driving it.

When the motorcycle plowed into Venta at forty miles per hour the wind immediately died down. Venta went tumbling through the air and landed in a bloody heap on the flagstones paving the plaza. She didn’t move. The man on the motorcycle took a gun out of a holster on his leg and fired. Green-tinged bullet holes appeared in Likely Evil Superboy’s back. Likely Evil Superboy fell out of the sky and hit the ground not far from his partner.

The man pointed the gun at Superboy. His red helmet had narrow lenses for eyes that gave him a permanent scowl. Superboy hovered in place and met his stare.

“There’ll be more of them soon,” the man said. “Follow me. Try anything and I’ll put kryptonite in your brain.”

“Who are you?” Superboy asked. His x-ray vision couldn’t see past the helmet or the bat emblazoned suit the man was wearing.

The man tilted his head slightly. “I’m the resistance.”

* * *

Superboy had to help Wallflower fly to the resistance hideout. She was too concussed to walk in a straight line, let alone fly after a motorcycle travelling at a hundred miles per hour that took turns without warning.

The man led them through a maze of streets (or what would have been a maze if they weren’t both familiar with navigating San Francisco) before heading into the subway system and riding his bike at a more sedate pace through the tunnels. He finally stopped at an unremarkable spot in the dark and pressed his hand against a spot on the wall.

“Red Hood requesting entry,” he said in a low voice. The wall silently slid open in front of him. “Inside, quick.”

Superboy sped after Red Hood, barely making it into the tunnel before the door closed behind them.

Neither Superboy nor Wallflower knew how Red Hood prevented the security the hideout must have had from erasing them from existence, but they eventually wound up in a more brightly lit room with technology and a computer setup that Superboy recognized well.

“You’re a Bat,” Superboy said.

“Did the suit give it away?” Red Hood spoke to the seemingly empty room as he removed his helmet. “Jericho, tell Lion we’ve got guests.”

“I already have,” the computer said in a voice that sounded like a text-to-speech program. “He said, quote, ‘You’re an idiot, Hood’, end quote.”

“Jericho?” Superboy asked. “Joey Wilson?”

 _-Who?-_ Wallflower asked.

“Former Titan, before your time,” Superboy said. “Cyborg digitized him when he tried to murder us.”

 _-I...may have read about that.-_ Wallflower sounded unsure. There were a lot of Teen Titans files.

Red Hood scoffed. “Yeah, that’s going around. Do you want to tell your invisible person to stop being invisible? Because if they don’t, I’m gonna shoot them.”

Never mind that shooting someone invisible was a complete guessing game at best.

Wallflower blinked into existence next to Superboy. _-Red Hood on our Earth is the Robin who died. Are you that Robin?-_

Red Hood swore. “Superboy and Venta? Must be my lucky day.”

“You’re an idiot, Hood,” a new voice said from across the room. The man who stepped into view was immediately recognizable to Wallflower, despite the scars on his face and the gun in his hands.

Wallflower hid behind Superboy.

“Are you serious?” Superboy asked.

 _-Yes,-_ Wallflower said.

Her brother’s doppelganger walked further into the room. “It’s not like this is the only uncompromised safe house we have left in the city or anything.”

“It isn’t,” Red Hood said.

Lion raised an eyebrow. “You’re a fucking liar, Hood.”

“You know what you need to know,” Red Hood said. “It’s safer that way.”

Superboy raised a hand. “Okay, hold up. Could someone explain what’s going on?”

Red Hood looked at Superboy. “Our version of your DNA donor lost the plot and decided to take over the world. The Teen Titans are on his side. So are most of the other so-called ‘heroes’.”

That wasn’t much of an explanation.

“The Joker killed Lois Lane and Martha Kent,” Jericho said. “Superman reacted...badly.”

“The U.S. is now a totalitarian state,” Lion said.

Superboy raked his fingers through his hair. He took several deep breaths. “Okay, that explains more than it should. What happened to the Justice League?”

“It’s broken,” Red Hood said. “Batman is holding Gotham. Wonder Woman is in Themyscira under lockdown. Capitan Marvel is in hiding somewhere after he failed to take out Superman. Green Arrow and Black Canary are dead. Everyone else is with Superman.”

“Everyone?” Superboy asked.

“Superman is calling what he’s doing ‘justice’,” Lion said. “It’s safer to assume that every superhero is into that.”

Wallflower looked over Superboy’s shoulder at Red Hood. She couldn’t remember the words for what she wanted to say. She tapped on Superboy’s arm. When he looked at her she pointed at Red Hood and raised her eyebrows.

Superboy ignored the fact that he couldn’t read minds and threw out a question that he thought made sense under the circumstances. “And what are you guys doing?”

Red Hood shrugged. “Saving the world?”

“Getting my sister back,” Lion said.

“About that, Lion...”Jericho sounded like he would have been grimacing if he had a physical body. “Hood hit her with his bike.”

Lion glared at Red Hood, who didn’t look remotely bothered.

“She can heal herself, she’ll be fine,” Red Hood said.

Speaking of which, Wallflower really had to deal with her concussion. She was starting to see spots. She closed her eyes and slowed her breathing, trying to ease into the semi-meditative state where she could use magic for things other than air control, invisibility, flight and talking in people’s heads. Only Superboy noticed the change, and if his response was to move so that Wallflower could lean against him because semi-meditative for her was practically asleep, well, none of their teammates were there to think it was weird.

“Which side is Robin on?” Superboy asked. Tim was the first person he thought of when asking himself who’d be able to get him and Wallflower back to their own Earth. He was really hoping that his friend was one of the good guys here.

Red Hood looked like he’d been stabbed. “Robin is dead.”

“Oh,” Superboy said.

He didn’t ask for details. Red Hood didn’t offer them.

“So, how did you get here?” Lion asked. “You’re obviously not our Superboy, but appearing in a flash of light doesn’t give us much to go on.”

Superboy frowned. “Gizmo had some sort of ray gun. It was probably that.”

“Huh,” Lion said. “Technology, not magic?”

“As far as I know,” Superboy said.

“Great.” Lion moved over to the computer, holstering his gun as he went. “Go do your plotting somewhere else, Hood. Jericho and I have science to do.”

“I didn’t agree to this,” Jericho said.

“You’re the one with the footage and the access to Titans and League files,” Lion said. “Pull up a chair, Not Evil Superboy.”

“Call me Conner,” Superboy said. “Wallflower, are you awake?”

 _-I am now,-_ Wallflower said. _-What’s happening?-_

“Science stuff. You want in?” Superboy asked.

Wallflower yawned. _-I want to sleep, but I’m thinking that’s not an option.-_

As Robin would say, sleep was for secure locations with only people you trust present. Red Hood, Jericho and Lion couldn’t be trusted.

Wallflower grabbed the back of Superboy’s shirt before he could move away from her. _-David...Lion might recognize me.-_

“Don’t make it a problem if it isn’t one,” Superboy said. “You’re a superhero.”

 _-That isn’t helpful,-_ Wallflower deadpanned. _\- But I’m making you speak in code, so what did I expect?-_

Superboy grinned. “Exactly. Grab a chair.”

Red Hood didn’t go somewhere else to plot. He stayed in the room while they worked, cleaning weapons and narrowing his eyes at Superboy and Wallflower ever so often. Lion was too focused on researching Gizmo’s ray gun to notice that his sister’s doppelganger was one chair away from him.

“It could be...Yeah, that would work,” Lion muttered to himself. “I need hair samples. Hood, I need hair from you too.”

“Why?” Red Hood asked.

“So that I can do a comparison of all the available humanoid vibrational frequencies,” Lion said. “Gimme, and be glad it’s not blood again.”

“I have narrow veins,” Red Hood grumbled.

Lion got his samples (after a several minute long detour to decide who they all thought wouldn’t kill everyone in the room with heat vision if they held a mirror for Superboy) and went to work with a modified microscope that had so many wires sticking out of it that no one else wanted to get close. After a few more minutes he gave a triumphant laugh.

“What did you find?” Superboy asked.

Lion grinned. “We are all outputting frequencies of quantum vibrations consistent with this Earth. That means that Gizmo’s ray gun phase-shifted you to match our frequencies so you’d be on our Earth instead of yours. All we have to do to get you home is shift you back.”

The quantum physics gobbledegook didn’t make a bit of sense to anyone but Wallflower, who grumbled, - _He says it like it’s easy.-_

“Can you do that with what we’ve got here?” Red Hood asked.

Lion thought for a moment. “Give me five days.”

 _-That means three days, if he’s like David,-_ Wallflower said. _-Tell him not to forget to run tests.-_

“Tell him yourself,” Superboy said. “He’s your brother, isn’t he?”

Wallflower stared at Superboy for a second before putting her head on the desk. _-I hate you.-_

“Same to you,” Superboy said. “You know you weren’t going to be able to keep it a secret for five days.”

_-Three days.-_

Lion, who had been standing frozen since Superboy had said the word brother, managed to get out one word before returning to doing his impression of a Medusa victim. “Delilah?”

After a second, Wallflower chose the most mature option to respond with. She turned invisible.

Red Hood sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Don’t make me shoot you.”

* * *

It took almost an hour for Lion and Wallflower’s brains to reboot. In that time, Superboy and Red Hood made a plan to blow up Titans Tower.

“Do I want to know why you have an Evil Superboy suit?” Superboy asked.

“Robin,” Red Hood replied shortly. “I don’t know what he was thinking, but we can use it.”

Superboy looked at the suit that had been hanging behind a rack of weapons. He could see his Robin having a supersuit stored in a Bat hideout for him “just in case”, but he wasn’t sure that would be true if he went to the dark side. Maybe if Robin gave into his emotions instead of logic. Maybe if he was hoping that Superboy would come to his senses and join the resistance.

“What happened to Robin?” Superboy asked.

Red Hood studied him through the Bat-standard white lenses of the domino mask he hadn’t removed. Eventually, he spoke. “It was an accident. I have to believe it was because...god. He fell. He fell off a building and there wasn’t anyone to catch him.”

Superboy would have caught him. He hoped that even if they were on opposing sides he would save his best friend.

Red Hood scoffed. “I think Venta blamed Beast Boy. She eviscerated him. Jericho says Raven and Superboy are all that’s keeping her controlled.”

It had been a literal evisceration. Not quite as brutal as some of the things Red Hood had seen and done with the League of Assassins, but still messy.

There was movement by the computers and a wordless shriek from Wallflower sounded in Superboy’s head. Both Superboy and Red Hood looked to make sure that no one was getting killed and went back to their planning when they saw that it was only Lion hugging Wallflower to within an inch of her life.

“Who do I have to worry about when I get inside?” Superboy asked. “Raven, Superboy, Venta, who else is alive?”

“Raven, Superboy, Venta, Kid Flash and Tempest will be at the Tower,” Red Hood said. “Cyborg might be with them but he’s more likely to be in Star City.”

Superboy nodded. “What about Wonder Girl and Starfire?”

“Themyscira and off-planet for the next few months,” Red Hood said. “You won’t have to worry about them.”

 _-Could I get some help here, please?-_ Wallflower asked. _-My ribs aren’t fully healed yet.-_

“Hold that thought,” Superboy told Red Hood before going to rescue his teammate from her brother’s doppelganger.

Lion needed little convincing to let go of Wallflower when Superboy told him she had broken ribs. He jumped back three feet and yelped. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

 _-Because you’ve got such a one-track mind that I doubt Psimon would be able to break into it,-_ Wallflower said. _-You were ignoring me.-_

“Oh,” Lion said. “Sorry.”

Wallflower accepted the apology before turning to Superboy. _-What was that about Starfire?-_

“I’m going to be infiltrating Titans Tower to plant explosives,” Superboy said. “Red Hood was briefing me on who I should expect to be there.”

Wallflower blinked at Superboy. She looked at Red Hood, who was worrying over a gun he’d already taken apart and put back together twice. _-You guys remember that invisibility is my thing, right? And I know every way in and out of the Tower. And I know explosives.-_

“Your hometown is messed up,” Superboy commented.

 _-Believe me, I’ve realized that.-_ Finding out that situational awareness, lock-picking and escaping from chokeholds without getting shot in the head weren’t things that all kids learned had been something of a revelation. It also explained why only her family and the Bats didn’t look at her weird if she came into a room through a window.

Red Hood looked thoughtful. “How much do you know about explosives?”

“Oh no,” Lion said. “You are not dragging my baby sister into this.”

 _-I’m already involved,-_ Wallflower said. _-She’s already involved.-_

Barely a second passed before Wallflower and Lion were signing furiously and seemingly ignoring that there was anyone else in the room. They were clearly having an argument, but it wasn’t clear who was winning. Finally, Wallflower slapped Lion’s hands down and stormed over to where Red Hood was standing.

 _-Explosives?-_ she asked.

* * *

Titans Tower was a symbol. When the Titans were heroes, it was a promise of safety and security. When their heroes turned against them, it was a reminder for everyone in San Francisco to keep their heads down and not do anything to draw their attention.

When it came crashing down after two years of oppression, people cheered.

* * *

“Are you sure this is going to work?” Superboy asked.

“That’s what Hood said when I was making artificial kryptonite,” Lion said. “You don’t see him complaining about the results.”

Superboy looked from the device in his hand to Lion and back again. The thing that Lion had built looked like it was made from a stapler, a light bulb and a Rubik’s cube. Superboy had seen it melt a spider two days before. Not vaporize, not vanish, _melt_.

“Kryptonite doesn’t kill you right away,” Superboy said. And he was pretty sure that death by kryptonite would be less painful.

Lion shrugged. “You’ll be fine. Do you know where Wallflower is?”

“Saying goodbye to Venta,” Superboy said.

Venta had been the only Titan they’d pulled from the rubble of Titans Tower alive. With Evil Superboy dead and Raven missing, Jericho and the Bats had decided that the safest thing to do was ship Venta to Themyscira and hope that her psychic link with Wonder Girl stopped her from attempting murder if she ever woke up. She was in a coma and so far Wallflower was the only person who’d been able to communicate with her. Seeing the two of them together weirded Superboy out.

Lion made a sound of understanding. “Make sure you grab a mask before you head topside.”

Superboy rolled his eyes. “Okay, Dad.” He knew Lion was right though. It would end badly if someone in the newly emboldened city recognized him.

Wallflower and Superboy activated Lion’s device on the roof of a building on a side street not far from the ruins of Titans Tower. The light bulb lit up. There was the feeling of being kicked in the gut and then they were standing on the same roof with many more people on the streets below than there had been on the other Earth.

 _-Robin and Wonder Girl are here,-_ Wallflower said. She sent a message that didn’t disappear into a void to let Robin and Wonder Girl know that they were alive. Seconds later, all of their teammates were on their comms talking over each other too much to be understood.

“Shut up!” Wonder Girl eventually ordered. “Superboy, Wallflower, where are you?”

“On a roof at 39th and Balboa,” Superboy said.

“Don’t go anywhere,” Wonder Girl said.

Before Wonder Girl finished her sentence, a flock of birds suddenly taking flight one street over signalled Kid Flash’s arrival. He ran up the side of the building, because that was a thing he could do on occasion when physics decided that it was done with his nonsense, and started talking at a speed that was at the edge of what Superboy could understand. Wallflower didn’t have a chance.

“Ohmygodyou’rebackwethoughtyouweregoneforeverRobinandIcouldn’tfigureouthowtogetyoubackwithoutgoingtowhereyouwerebutwedidn’tknowwhereyouwereandjumpingaroundalternateEarthsatrandomwouldhavetakenforeverandwedon’thaveforeverhowdidyougetbackareyouokayareyouhurt—” 

“KF, chill,” Superboy said.

Kid Flash sat down by the edge of the roof. “Dude.”

Wallflower smiled.

Beast Boy touched down on the roof in human form with barely a stumble. “They’re alive! You didn’t kill each other!”

 _-Why would we kill each other?-_ Wallflower asked.

“You hate him,” Beast Boy said.

“He hates you,” Kid Flash added.

Wonder Girl landed next to Beast Boy. She had dark bags under her eyes from four nights of insomnia (and having to go to school when her friend and boyfriend were missing) but she greeted Superboy and Wallflower with a bright smile. “I’m glad you’re back. What was that about he hates you?”

“KF and Best Boy think we can’t be around each other without planning murder,” Superboy said.

Wonder Girl’s smile faltered slightly. “Well, you do argue a lot. I was kind of worried you’d get yourselves killed wherever you were without one of us there to act as a buffer.”

Superboy and Wallflower exchanged a look. Worrying Wonder Girl for such a stupid reason wasn’t something either of them wanted to do. 

“I don’t entirely hate you,” Superboy said.

 _-You’re not so bad,-_ Wallflower admitted.

Kid Flash sped over and threw his arms over their shoulders. “So, we’re all friends now?”

Superboy scoffed. “No.”

 _-Hell no.-_ Wallflower looked at Superboy. _-Race you to the Tower.-_

“You’re making cupcakes when I win,” Superboy said. “The ones with chocolate chips.”

 _-You’re watching_ Star Wars _when I win,-_ Wallflower said. _-All of them.-_

None of the Teen Titans were disappointed when they had a _Star Wars_ marathon, though they had to pause for twenty minutes to fight after Kid Flash took the last cupcake.

* * *

Superboy died fighting Superboy-Prime.

* * *

Wallflower didn’t remember most of what people were calling the Battle of Metropolis. She didn’t know if she should blame it on the minor head injury she’d gotten halfway through the fight or Conner’s death sending her brain into panicky, revenge-seeking survival mode. If she’d talked to any superhero about it they would have told her that it was pretty normal not to know what the hell had happened during a battle against a universe-level threat, but outside of helping with the Metropolis rebuilding efforts she hadn’t really talked to anyone since the battle ended. She was pretty sure that her mom had figured out that she had been involved in the fight somehow based on all the crying and disappearing for hours she’d been doing, but she couldn’t bring herself to care about her lapsed secret identity.

Superboy’s funeral was held the Saturday after he’d died. Valhalla Cemetery was one of the first places in Metropolis to be cleaned up by the army of civilian volunteers and superheroes in and out of costume that had been brought together by Jimmy Olson and Alan Scott. Wallflower had been part of the Valhalla group, so she was able to navigate the cemetery through the haze of tears clouding her vision.

The graveside was reserved for Superman, a few other members of the Justice League and the Teen Titans. It wasn’t raining (it felt like it should have been raining) but the sun was hidden behind layers of clouds. The grave was already dug (there were whispers that Superman had dug it himself). Draped over Conner’s coffin was the blue and white flag of the United Nations, the closest thing there was to a flag for the world.

There wasn’t a pastor or a rabbi. Instead, Superman spoke in halting Kryptonian for a few minutes before switching to English.

“We knew him as Superboy and Kon-El and Conner,” Superman said. “He was our comrade, our friend and he was my brother.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this entire chapter is new content. I got to the end of the new stuff I was planning on writing, looked at the original chapter and decided that none of it fit. That was fun.


	5. In Which Captain Boomerang Hates Trees

The Teen Titans were having an internal crisis. Actually, more than one but no one had the time or energy to come to a collective decision on the plural of crisis. Problem one, half the team had stopped coming to the Tower with any regularity since Bart had been killed. Beast Boy and Raven were doing their best, but they couldn’t make their friends do anything they didn’t want to do. Being a Titan had always been voluntary. Problem two, Tim was trying to clone Conner and none of his friends were actually all that bothered about it. All his attempts had failed so far so until he got something viable they were kind of ignoring the ethics of it. They were more worried about making sure that Tim wasn’t left to fend for himself while he was working. Raven had made a schedule. Problem three, Cassie was dabbling in necromancy. Problem four, most of the new Titans were treating being on the team like a popularity contest.

Public appearances weren’t a thing that the Titans did. And then they were. Delilah didn’t know who to blame for that, but if they were the same person who kept mixing hard cider in with the soda cans in the Tower’s fridge they were in for a double world of hurt once she caught them.

Miss Martian was on monitor duty during this particular meet-and-greet, so Wallflower retreated to the top of the Tower to avoid the crowds and keep an extra eye out for trouble. It wasn’t like she’d be missed. She wasn’t sure all of their new teammates knew she existed, let alone the public. She ended up contacting Wonder Girl about twenty minutes in. _-There’s a flying guy with a crocodile coming towards us. Look east.-_

At the base of the Tower, Wonder Girl looked east and indeed saw a flying guy with a crocodile. She almost hadn’t believed Wallflower. Almost. “Junior.”

Captain Marvel Junior turned away from the T-shirt he was signing and saw what Wonder Girl was looking at. He managed not to groan but only because there were too many people watching.

Osiris landed just as Wonder Girl and Junior achieved getting the other Titans to notice him. Beast Boy turned into a gorilla. Wonder Girl gripped her lasso and glared at the intruder. The crowd of civilians backed away except for a few people who started recording what was going on. Wallflower flew down from her perch to hover within hearing range.

“Osiris,” Junior said. “You shouldn’t be here.”

Junior was the only member of the team who had encountered Osiris before. Most of the rest of them knew about Black Adam and had seen the press conference where the man had declared that because of his new family he was no longer going to be a supervillain. All of them were taking the declaration with a grain of salt. With nothing else to go on, they deferred to Junior’s experience.

“I want to join the Teen Titans,” Osiris said. “Please, just give me a chance.”

 _-Do it,-_ Wallflower said. Junior’s entire body jolted. _-Give him a chance, Junior.-_

The gods in Junior’s head began speaking. _-Do not dismiss him out of hand,-_ Solomon warned. _-He could be a great asset, or a great enemy if ignored.-_

Mercury’s advice was more to the point. _-Listen to the girl.-_

“Come inside,” Junior told Osiris slowly. “We’ll talk.”

* * *

They let Osiris join the team, sort of. Unlike when Wallflower had joined, Osiris had been put on probation and could be kicked out at any time without warning. He hadn’t even done anything. Wallflower had at least stolen money (and done some other things that only Robin knew about). Osiris just had the misfortune of being part of the wrong family. Junior pulled Wallflower aside when the impromptu meeting was over and Osiris was receiving a fairly enthusiastic welcome from the rest of the team. His man-crocodile Sobek was gulping down the crackers that somehow accompanied each meeting while ignoring the jar of Cheez Whiz that was also on the table. That was another vote for Cheez Whiz not counting as food. 

“I want you to keep an eye on him,” Junior said. “See everywhere he goes, everyone he meets.”

 _-You don’t trust him so you want me to spy on him,-_ Wallflower said.

Junior turned pink at the accusation but he didn’t deny it.

 _-Maybe you’re being too cautious,-_ Atlas pointed out.

Junior ignored him. “Just do it.”

 _-Yes sir, mister leader sir,-_ Wallflower said.

Junior blinked. “You’re being sarcastic, aren’t you?”

_-Yes sir, mister leader sir.-_

Junior rolled his eyes and walked away.

Wallflower looked towards Osiris. She sent her thoughts to him and to all their teammates surrounding him, successfully pushing back the voices trying to break into her mind.- _Hey, new kid, you want a tour?-_

Osiris put his hands to his temples. He still wasn’t used to having multiple people talking to him in his head and adding Wallflower’s voice to the babble was _not_ helpful. He looked over at her after he’d gotten the gods in his head to shut up for one second. “Sure,” he said hesitantly.

Miss Martian laughed and pushed him gently towards her. “Don’t worry, Wallflower’ll take care of you.”

Wallflower smiled. _-I can’t promise that.-_

Miss Martian rolled her eyes. “Just go.” 

* * *

Wallflower had somehow managed to give Osiris a full tour of Titans Tower without getting him beheaded (a real danger with Zatara’s boomerang machete on the third floor) and was now fulfilling Junior’s request. She was following behind Osiris and Sobek as they flew over the city. She stayed far enough back that neither Osiris nor his crocodile was able to sense her but not so far back that she couldn’t catch up with him when he dropped down into Golden Gate Park.

Osiris hovered a few inches above the ground and looked around. He was sure that he had seen someone through the trees but he couldn’t see anyone now. “Sobek—”

Something in front of him exploded. He went one way and Sobek went another. Above them Wallflower tumbled backwards though the sky and fell into a tree.

With his vision doing loop-de-loops Osiris reached for his Titans communicator only to come up with a handful of electronics guts. He jumped up and was almost immediately punched in the face. A meaty hand grabbed the front of his costume and electricity arched through his body. He yelled.

The person holding him laughed. “Hey, kid, look at me when I’m talking to you!” More electricity arched through him.

“Don’t fry him, Electrocutioner,” another man said. “We don’t want to kill him…right?”

“ _Oui_. Put ‘im down,” a woman said.

Electrocutioner listened to the woman and Osiris was dropped to the ground. Up in her tree Wallflower sent mental messages to Robin and Wonder Girl asking for backup _right away_ while she struggled to get untangled from branches so that she could help Osiris with the four supervillains surrounding him. Him and Sobek, who had been caught by Persuader and was being held by his throat.

“What should we do with the reptile?” Persuader asked.

Electrocutioner looked over his shoulder at Persuader. “The Killer Croc wannabe? Hit it with your axe or something.”

At this point, all the gods in Osiris’ head were shouting for him to GET UP, which did not help him with seeing straight. “Leave Sobek alone!”

Persuader smirked. “Make me, kid.”

Osiris let out a yell. In one swift motion he pushed Electrocutioner out of his way and flew towards Persuader. Captain Boomerang pulled out one of his exploding creations and threw it at the boy. It was a race between the boomerang and the Teen Titan that was cut short when a tornado sprung up, blocking Osiris’ way to Persuader and sending both him and the boomerang spiralling in opposite directions. Osiris pulled up before he hit a large oak and the boomerang exploded in the trunk of a young maple, sending splinters flying through the air.

“Who did that?" Captain Boomerang asked.

Captain Boomerang turned around in a circle while Plastique's eyes flitted from tree to tree. While they were looking around and Electrocutioner was trying to get out of the thorny bush Osiris had pushed him into, Wallflower went in front of Persuader and punched him as hard as she could in the throat. Persuader doubled over, gasping, and she created another tornado to rip his axe away from him. Sobek took the opportunity to escape. He went running through the trees, looking for Osiris. Obviously Plastique and Captain Boomerang noticed. He pulled out another boomerang but put it away when Plastique waved her hand at him. She touched the ground and caused the earth around Persuader to explode. Wallflower wasn’t expecting that. The force of the blast sent her tumbling backwards and she hit her head on a tree trunk. Soil rained down, covering her in a film of dust.

“Look, the kid’s got a girlfriend!” Electrocutioner pointed at her. He pulled a thorn out of his arm and electricity crackled between his hands. “What’s your name, girlie?”

“Are you talking to me?” Electrocutioner yelped when Wonder Girl punched him in the face. “Because I don’t appreciate being called ‘girlie’.”

 _-Great timing,-_ Wallflower said.

Wonder Girl didn’t turn away from the process of tying Electrocutioner up with her lasso. “I try.”

“Nrut eht sgnaremoob dnuora!” The two boomerangs that Captain Boomerang had thrown at Wonder Girl and Wallflower spun back towards him and pinned him to a tree. Zachary Zatara grinned down from his flying carpet. “You’re welcome, beautiful.”

Wallflower grimaced. _-Wonder Girl, please remind me to punch him when the world stops spinning.-_

“Of course,” Wonder Girl said.

The sound of explosions from Captain Marvel Junior and Raven battling Plastique and the stream of expletives that Persuader was croaking out as Robin restrained him made it easy for Osiris and Sobek to make their way back to them.

“Let’s get these guys back to Belle Reve,” Robin said once everything had settled down. “Raven, take Wallflower, Osiris and Sobek home.”

Raven nodded and floated over to help Wallflower up out of the dirt. Junior looked at Osiris and Sobek with a wary look in his eyes but yielded to the Boy Wonder’s judgment.

While Delilah was studying in her room in the Tower after dinner, Osiris knocked on her window. She looked at him sideways from her desk. _-Are we needed downstairs?-_ He shook his head and motioned for her to open the window. A cold wind blew him into the room. She warmed up the blanket of air and wrapped it around herself . _-What is it, Osiris?-_

Osiris rubbed the back of his head. “I, uh, wanted to thank you. For saving my life.”

 _-You’re welcome,-_ Delilah said. 

“And, uh, Captain Marvel Junior told me that you asked him to let me on the team.”

Delilah’s eyes widened momentarily. Junior hadn’t mentioned that giving Osiris a chance had been her suggestion before. _-That? Well, Robin wasn’t going to vouch for you so it just fell to the only former criminal. As these things do.-_

Osiris coughed. “You were a criminal?” His voice had gone up half an octave by the last word. 

_-Robbed banks.-_ Delilah smiled. - _Don’t worry, I turned out this well, you’ll do just fine. Soon you won’t be able to think of anywhere else as home.-_

Osiris frowned. “Uh, thanks?”

_-You’re welcome. Now, I’ve got about a billion biochemical processes to memorize, so goodnight.-_

“Goodnight,” he repeated slowly. He flew out of the window, ignoring the gods berating him. If they wanted to talk to Hecate, they could do it themselves.

Delilah had just gotten the window shut, curtains closed and the fresh air circulating around the room when Cassie stopped outside her door. She waited. When the other girl didn’t knock she lightly told her that unless she was planning to stand in the hallway all night she’d better come in. They stood across the room from each other until Cassie finally spoke, softly and haltingly, just as she had been all afternoon.

“You could have been killed.”

 _-I’m a Titan, Cassie. That hazard comes with the job.-_ Delilah hadn’t intended to sound so flippant. That was one problem with telepathy. It was so fast that filters didn’t exist unless you really thought about what you were going to say beforehand.

“But you could have died. Like Conner.” Cassie let out a hissing breath and her face hardened. “You could have died for a kid who can clearly take care of himself.”

Delilah crossed the room to place a hand on her shoulder. Cassie’s arm twitched like she wanted to shrug her away. _-He would have killed Persuader if I hadn’t stopped him.-_

“And that would have been so bad?” Cassie growled. “Just one less murderer for us to deal with.”

Delilah flinched at Cassie’s harsh tone, but she kind of agreed with her. The members of Amanda Waller’s Suicide Squad weren’t chosen because they were heroes. Still.

 _-Osiris’ life would be ruined and we would probably get in trouble because he’s part of our team,-_ Delilah said. They did not need a PR nightmare to deal with on top of everything else.

Cassie sighed and all the tension flowed out of her. “You’re right, but you could still have been killed. Like Conner.”

Cassie began to tremble. Delilah took her hand and tugged her towards her bed. Cassie crumpled onto the edge of the mattress and Delilah sat down beside her, holding her while she waited for the first tears to fall. This had become routine for them. Since Conner had died it had become almost impossible for them to come out of a conversation mentioning him without Cassie crying. Maybe Delilah was just too easy to cry around. Almost exactly the same thing happened with Tim, and he _never_ cried around other people.

“We’re going to bring him back.” Cassie’s voice was muffled in the softness of Delilah’s pajama top.

 _-You know how I feel about necromancy, Cassie.-_ Necromancy was bad. Lazarus Pits were worse. Bringing people back to life wasn’t natural, no matter how many times it had happened before, no matter how wide open the doors between life and death were. Sure they’d gotten to keep some of the greatest heroes, but not all of them. _-Some random luck could bring him back to life but we can’t do anything about it. Superman died once and he came back without anyone trying to resurrect him. If Conner is meant to live again then he will.-_

“I would give anything to have him back,” Cassie said hoarsely.

 _-Even your own life?-_ Delilah asked. _-You know Conner wouldn’t want that. He loved you, still loves you wherever he is now, and he wouldn’t want you to die for him._ We _wouldn’t want you to die to bring him back.-_

A life for a life. The necromancy books Delilah definitely hadn’t borrowed without permission from Zatanna or Jason Blood seemed to think that was a fair trade. Delilah disagreed. Most rational people would. 

Cassie drew back and looked into Delilah’s eyes. They were simmering with unshed tears. “That’s not what I meant.”

_-You said you’d give anything.-_

Cassie blushed. “Maybe not anything.”

 _-Cassie, we all miss Conner but we have to move on, eventually. Conner would want that. He’d want you to be happy again,-_ Delilah said.

Cassie rested her head on Delilah’s shoulder and didn’t reply.

 _-I loved him too.-_ Delilah’s mental voice was almost imperceptible as she admitted it for the first time. _-I loved him, and it hurts me every day that he’s gone, but we have to keep going.-_

“You loved him?” There was no heat to Cassie’s question, just a sort of wistful sadness. Delilah nodded slowly. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

Because it had crept up on her. Because she and Conner barely behaved like they were friends, no one would have believed her if she said she’d fallen in love with him, except maybe Raven. Because she would never have tried to break up Cassie and Conner’s relationship, so better not to say anything at all.

 _-You’re my friend. He loved you,-_ Delilah said simply. 

“I kissed Tim,” Cassie said.

Delilah blinked. _-You what?-_

“I kissed Tim,” Cassie repeated. “After the funeral. We were both crying. It just sort of happened.”

 _-Huh.-_ Delilah didn’t know how else to respond. Cassie and Tim were justified in their actions. That had been a bad week. _-Where was I when this happened?-_

“Helping Raven stop Gar from drinking himself to death,” Cassie said.

 _-Oh. Right.-_ She remembered now. That had been a really bad week in the middle of what had turned out to be a bad month. _-Why are you telling me this now?-_

“Because I wish it had been the other way around.”

_-You’d rather have been getting Gar not to empty out an entire bar while in the form of a howler monkey?-_

A _really_ bad week.

“No.” Cassie tilted her head and caught Delilah’s lips with her own.

Delilah was too stunned to do anything to stop her. _-Cassie!-_

Cassie turned around and pushed Delilah further onto the bed. “You’re the one who said we have to move on.”

_-Conner…-_

“Would want us to be happy.”

_-Quit using my own words against me.-_

Cassie leaned down and kissed her again. “Do you want me to stop?” she murmured against Delilah’s cheek.

_-No.-_

* * *

Gar did not appreciate being sent on alarm clock duty. Sure he was the only Titan who could crawl under a door and turn into a rooster on the other side, but he didn’t enjoy being targeted by fireballs/ tornadoes/ lightning bolts/anything within reach that could be thrown when he succeeded in waking his teammates up. Unsurprisingly, none of the other Teen Titans were really morning people. Captain Marvel Junior wanted all of them downstairs for a meeting though so there he was, dodging forks that had been magically fired at him by Zachary. Zachary’s state of half-asleep was the only reason that they weren’t still feathers.

After he managed to lose the last fork by getting it to fly into the ceiling, Gar headed towards Cassie’s room with great trepidation. She could either throw a bone-cracking punch first and ask questions later, or wrap him up like a Christmas present with her lasso and push him out her window. Neither option was appealing.

He knocked on her door first, two loud raps that woke up Holly Granger in the next room over. Then when that didn’t work he turned into an ant and hurried under the door. The hurrying was mostly so that he wouldn’t get squashed by the pillow that Holly had hurdled at him. He dodged a boot that was sitting by the door and went over to the closet so that he could crow from a safer distance. When he turned into a rooster and gained a greater perspective he realized that Cassie wasn’t there. The bed was neatly made and the air was cold.

“Great,” Gar sighed, and then “Uh oh.” He shook his head. “Junior, I think we’ve lost Cassie,” he said though his communicator. “She’s not in her room.”

“Robin just got in. She was probably out too,” Junior said sensibly.

Gar rolled his eyes as much as he could when he was a rooster. “If you say so.”

He hurried to wake up everyone else. When he reached Delilah’s door he repeated the process of knocking loudly, turning into an insect and dodging articles of clothing on the way in. This time when he changed forms he saw that the bed was not empty and that there was a good explanation for the ridiculous amount of clothing on the floor. Fowl met desk lamp with a crash. Cassie stirred slightly and Delilah’s eyes shot open as the lamp vibrated on the floor.

Flash Fact: Roosters can’t fly in tornadoes. Gar gave it a damn good try though. It was only when Delilah realized that she was tossing around a green bird that the wind died down and everything that had been spinning though the air fell to the floor.

 _-Gar?-_ she asked.

“Present,” the dizzy bird muttered. He stumbled around and eventually fell down next to a pink sock.

Delilah blushed, for more than one reason, and moved the bed sheet so that she and Cassie were completely covered. _-Sorry.-_

“I’m okay,” Gar promised, raising a wingtip in salute. “Just give me a minute for the room to stop spinning.”

“Gar, what’s going on?” Junior’s voice came from Gar’s communicator, which had turned on after he crashed. Delilah looked at him with wide eyes.

“Just a bit of freak weather,” Gar replied, looking back at her stoically. “Delilah’s awake.”

“Ah,” Junior said. Then he turned off his communicator and left Gar and Delilah staring at each other in silence.

 _-Please don’t tell anyone.-_ Delilah’s voice was so quiet that Gar wasn’t totally sure that she’d said anything.

“I won’t tell anyone,” he said. “Junior wants everyone downstairs for the let’s-really-decide-if-we’re-going-to-kick-Osiris-out meeting.”

 _-Work clothes?-_ Delilah asked.

Gar tried not to look at the clothes scattered on the floor. “Civvies are fine.”

_-We’ll be there.-_

Gar nodded jerkily, turned back into an ant and stumbled out of the room. When he was gone Delilah took away the soundproofing that she had put up around Cassie and shook her gently.

_-Time to get up.-_

Cassie pried her eyes open and rolled over. “Is it morning already?”

_-Yes, sleepyhead. Junior’s even calling a meeting.-_

Cassie sighed. “Great.” She blinked. “Wait, does that mean…?”

_-Yes.-_

“So he…?”

_-Yes.-_

Cassie pulled a pillow over her head and groaned.

 _-He promised not to tell,-_ Delilah said.

“He’d better or I’ll strangle him,” Cassie grumbled.

 _-I’ll help,-_ Delilah promised. _-But right now we actually have to get up. It’s the let’s-really-decide-if-we’re-going-to-kick-Osiris-out meeting.-_

Cassie was slow to move, but eventually she rolled out of bed and began getting dressed. “Delilah, what are we now?”

Delilah paused while taking a shirt out of her dresser drawer. _-I don’t know,-_ she said eventually. _-What do you want to be?-_

Cassie tossed her wrinkled tank top in Delilah’s laundry bin and caught the T-shirt Delilah threw to her in return. It wasn’t the first time one of them had spent the night in the other’s room, though more often it was Delilah’s room in her family’s apartment and Cassie sneaking out before dawn so her mom wouldn’t know she’d been gone. It was the first time they’d kissed. It was the first time they’d more than kissed. There’d been a lot of firsts.

“I think I like this.” Cassie gestured to encompass the two of them. “Could we try this? Us.”

 _-Are you sure?-_ Delilah asked. Conner...It had only been a year. A year and a half, if she was generous. A thread of guilt wove around her lungs and pulled tight.

“Yes,” Cassie said. “Oh no! Don’t cry.” She pulled Delilah into a hug. “Talk to me.”

Tears ran down Delilah’s face. She rested her head on Cassie’s shoulder. _-I miss Conner.-_

Cassie squeezed her eyes shut. For once she was able to stop herself from crying. “I know.”


	6. In Which (Some) People Are Unsurprised

When Conner and Bart came back from the future, Delilah was writing her final exam of her undergraduate degree. She walked out of the stuffy room with a headache and half a dozen messages spread across her cell phone and her Titans communicator. She checked her communicator text messages first and immediately looked for one of the places on campus where she could go invisible. One camera blind spot behind the computer science department building later she was flying as fast as she could for Washington, D.C. and the Hall of Justice.

_-Cassie, what does “something happened” mean?-_ Delilah asked.

Her girlfriend’s voice came through the earpiece synced with Delilah’s communicator. “It’s not bad, it’s just easier to explain in person. How far out are you?”

_-About an hour, if Batman’s security isn’t out to get me again,-_ Delilah said.

To be fair, it had probably been Nightwing messing around with the facial recognition as a joke. Probably.

“That was one time,” Cassie said, sounding amused. “We’ll be in the lounge.”

_-See you.-_ Delilah would have sped up if she hadn’t already been flying as fast as she could. “It’s not bad” didn’t mean that whatever it was wasn’t a problem.

The usual crowd of tourists at the front of the Hall of Justice was on lunch break when Delilah arrived. She still entered through the back door. Thankfully, the security system didn’t try to lock her out or make her answer riddles.

The riddles had definitely been a Nightwing joke. He’d apologized when he found out that the security system wasn’t smart enough to recognize ASL. And then he and Tim made the security system smart enough to recognize ASL, which wasn’t at all terrifying. (It was terrifying. They didn’t need more AIs that might try to murder them one day. Delilah made a point to be nice to the security system.)

The lounge was on the first basement level. In theory it doubled as a panic room but it had never actually been used for that purpose. Delilah knocked on the heavy steel door and then pushed it further ajar until there was enough space for her to slip into the room. There was a Bat-level computer system on one wall and steel cabinets on all the others. The couches that the Titans and sidekicks took over when the Justice League was working on things they couldn’t or weren’t allowed to be involved in were arranged facing each other rather than the computer. Delilah saw Raven and Gar before a red and blue blur slammed into her.

“You’renotdeadIthoughtyouweredeadnoonewouldtellusanythingI’msogladyou’reokay!”

Well, there was only one person Delilah knew who would be hugging her and talking like that. It took her a few tries to get the word out because it felt like her brain was short-circuiting and she was fairly certain she was hallucinating. _-Bart?-_

Bart released her and darted back. He gave a wave and a sheepish smile. “Hi.”

Delilah stood frozen as she took stock of everyone else in the room. Tim was sitting next to Raven with his head in his hands. Mia was rolling a tennis ball between her palms and looking up at a different person every few seconds. Gar had turned into a green golden retriever and head-butted Delilah’s hand until she started petting him. Cassie was sitting next to Conner.

Delilah had to be hallucinating.

Slowly and hesitantly, Delilah reached for the place in her psyche that she’d learned to avoid. Instead of finding a gaping hole, she lighted on a wire that pointed in the direction of the person who _looked_ like Conner and...That really was Conner, wasn’t it? 

Gar let out a whine as Delilah sat down hard on the floor. He shook his head and then offered doggie cuddles, which were accepted.

After a few seconds, Delilah looked up at her friends. _-Would someone please tell me what’s going on?-_

By the time Conner and Bart had told them about how they’d been resurrected by the Legion of Super-Heroes to help fight Superboy-Prime and the Legion of Super-Villains in the 31st century before returning to the present with Superman, they were all mostly able to act like normal human beings whose worlds hadn’t been turned on their heads for the second (or third) time in two to ten months.

“So, Superman said it’s been two years for you guys,” Conner said. “That’s...How’ve you been?”

Cassie laughed. Mia started and dropped her tennis ball. Delilah reached out to wipe away the tears welling up in Cassie’s eyes before resting her head on her shoulder.

Tim caught the ball when it bounced in front of him. “I think that about sums it up.”

“We are healing,” Raven said. “Slowly. We keep getting off track.”

Tim tossed the tennis ball in the air with a flick of his wrist. Every time he caught it he added an item to the list of things sending them off track. “Batman is lost in time and no one outside of this room believes me. Lex Luthor and Wotan rewrote the world and half our teammates were supervillains for a month until Nightwing, Zatanna and I fixed it. We got investigated by the FBI because of the supervillain thing. The government tried to implement a metahuman registration law. Ra’s al Ghul. Deathstroke.”

“So, you’ve been busy,” Bart said.

That was one way to put it.

They were all silent for a little while. The world according to Lex Luthor and Wotan (and several other villains) case had given all the Titans nightmares, whether they’d been turned into villains or not. Black Canary had put in a lot of hours as a therapist. They ought to get her a gift basket or something.

Delilah’s stomach growled loudly. She shrugged when Tim raised an eyebrow at her. _-I came straight here from a final exam. I haven’t had lunch yet.-_

“I could eat,” Bart said.

“You can always eat,” Gar said.

Bart shrugged. “I’m a speedster. Let’s order pizza.”

“We can’t order pizza to the Hall of Justice,” Mia said.

“Hasn’t stopped us before,” Conner pointed out.

Tim threw the tennis ball one last time and caught it as he stood up. “Let’s see what’s in the kitchen.”

What was in the kitchen was eggs. A lot of eggs.

Bart’s eyes were wide as he looked into the fridge. “Did someone start a new diet or something? Those are all chicken eggs, right?”

“I think some are duck eggs,” Tim said. He was looking through the cupboards on the other end of the galley kitchen that was too small for the eight of them, let alone all the heroes who trooped through the Hall of Justice on a weekly basis. He took out a tin of coffee but didn’t make it to the coffee maker before it was snatched out of his hands.

“You’ve had enough caffeine today,” Cassie said as she put the coffee away. “Is there any bread?”

“Dinner rolls,” Gar said, holding up a bag of them.

They ended up making a few dozen sandwiches. As expected, Bart ate most of them. The conversation turned to slightly less morbid topics while they were assembling the late lunch. Tim, who had gotten a cup of black tea with far too much sugar through some sort of Bat stealth maneuver, was grumbling about Wayne Enterprises board meetings in between throwing around time travel ideas with Bart that got more and more convoluted as they went on. All of their ideas would have worked though, if they’d tried them.

“Why are all of my friends geniuses?” Gar asked.

Delilah raised her eyebrows. _-What do you mean?-_

“I mean you’re graduating college at seventeen, Tim’s the world’s youngest CEO and he discovered who Batman and Robin were when he was eight, and Bart knows enough to get ten PhDs,” Gar said. 

Delilah couldn’t argue against Tim and Bart’s accomplishments and the conversation moved on too quickly for her to dispute the one Gar assigned to her. In the grand scheme of things, graduating seven years earlier than the average (most college graduates were around twenty-four) wasn’t really a genius move. It was more hard work and being bored to tears back in fifth grade.

The kitchen started clearing out when Bart declared that they were having a movie night but he had to visit his family first and he sped out of the room after washing the dishes in less than a second. Tim and Mia followed, Tim wondering aloud if he could get to China and back before the movie started. Mia was trying to talk him out of it. Raven and Gar disappeared without a word after a second of silent communication.

“I should go see Ma,” Conner said. “Do you want to come with?” He looked at Delilah. “You haven’t met Ma yet, right?”

Delilah shook her head. _-I have. Christmas last year. She taught me how to make apple pie.-_ It had been her first successful pie and she hadn’t made one since.

“We should talk first,” Cassie said. Her gaze flickered towards Delilah. “There’s something we need to tell you.”

_-Now?-_ Delilah asked her. _-He just came back.-_

“Better he hears from us than someone else. Our new teammates can’t keep their mouths shut,” Cassie said.

“What happened?” Conner asked. “Are you okay?”

While Cassie assured Conner that they were fine, Delilah took a deep breath and braced herself for his reaction.

“Delilah and I are dating,” Cassie said.

Conner was silent. Silent was fine. He was still in the room. His brain needed some time to process, but he didn’t seem to be headed towards anger.

“Okay,” Conner finally said. “I was dead and...” He lapsed into silence again, blushing.

Cassie raised an eyebrow. “Do we want to know what’s going on in your head right now?”

“Probably not,” Conner admitted. “What do we...Do we do anything?” His girlfriend was dating someone else. They’d both thought he was dead. He _had_ been dead.

Delilah shrugged and shook her head. She didn’t know what they could do that didn’t leave one of them unhappy.

“Do you want to break up?” Cassie asked Conner.

Conner flinched. “Is it breaking up if I’ve been dead for two years?”

_-For us, you were dead,-_ Delilah said. _-For you, you saw Cassie yesterday.-_

Conner leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling so he didn’t have to look at Cassie or Delilah. “I don’t want to break up.”

_-I don’t want to break up either,-_ Delilah said. Then she blushed and turned invisible.

The three of them spent a good minute avoiding looking at each other.

Conner sighed. “We’re not Bats. We’re supposed to be able to talk about our feelings.”

_-Call it another fundamental law of the universe that doesn’t always apply to us,-_ Delilah said. _-Like gravity.-_

Cassie tapped her fingers on the table. Her eyebrows were knit together in thought. “I might have an idea.”

* * *

And that was how Conner and Delilah ended up going on their first date.

_“That didn’t feel like a first date,”_ Delilah signed as they left the mom-and-pop diner they’d chosen to go to for lunch because Delilah liked the burgers and Conner liked the completely out of place chow mein.

Conner shrugged. “Maybe we know each other too well?”

_“Summer 2007,”_ Delilah signed. Then, as though Conner didn’t know what she was talking about, she added telepathically, _-We literally fell asleep on top of each other half naked.-_

That had been Bart’s fault. It was his idea to have a movie marathon the night it had been approximately the temperature of hell and no one thought they’d be able to sleep.

“We swore we wouldn’t talk about that,” Conner said.

_-On pain of death. You died. The oath is null and void,-_ Delilah said.

Conner elbowed her. Delilah elbowed him back and stuck her tongue out at him.

“Whatever,” Conner said. “If we can talk about that then we can definitely talk about when Mia dared you—”

Delilah slapped her hand over his mouth, cutting him off. She shook her head firmly. Conner’s eyes shone with amusement.

_-What happens in Truth or Dare stays in Truth or Dare,-_ Delilah said. _-You’ve made your point. Quit while you’re ahead.-_

They were interrupted by robot aliens (not alien robots, big difference) while Conner was figuring out a comeback. Typical.

Their second date was interrupted by Abra Kadabra reversing gravity in Boring, Oregon, which had every flying hero in the country available rushing there to stop people from dying in the upper atmosphere. After gravity was fixed by Booster Gold of all people and Dr. Fate, Wallflower collapsed onto a rooftop next to Wonder Girl and tried to catch her breath.

“Well, that was a great way to spend a Friday afternoon,” Wonder Girl said.

Wallflower leaned back against the chimney of the house they probably shouldn’t have been sitting on and stared up at the sky that wasn’t the unnatural green colour it had been when gravity pointed the wrong way. _-No one died. I call that a win.-_

“True,” Wonder Girl said. “Do you want ice cream? We should get ice cream.”

_-Let me breathe first,-_ Wallflower said. Maybe she could even fit in a nap before a responsible adult insisted on a debriefing and/or writing reports.

There was a soft thud behind them. “Is this where we’re hiding?” Superboy asked.

Wonder Girl scoffed. “You think we can hide?” She gestured to the bright blues, reds and yellows of their costumes. “Plus, Superman totally knows where we are.”

Superboy shrugged and sat next to her. “As long as we get a bit of a break.”

_-Give it time,-_ Wallflower said. _-Do you think we’ll go to the Tower or the Hall of Justice?-_

Wonder Girl and Superboy both voted for Titans Tower. Apparently people were still finding semi-caustic slime in the Hall of Justice after the previous week’s someone-poked-the-alien-object incident. There were rules against that, but there were also procedures for dealing with it because there was always someone who ignored the rules. (Guy Gardner. The person who ignored the rules was Guy Gardner. He wasn’t even part of the Justice League.)

“We’ve probably got five minutes,” Superboy said.

Wonder Girl hummed noncommittally. “So, have you kissed yet?”

Superboy nearly fell off the roof. Wallflower blushed. Wonder Girl giggled.

“Why is it a ‘yet’?” Superboy asked once he gotten his balance back. “It’s not a foregone conclusion. We might not even like each other.”

Wonder Girl’s giggles turned into full blown laughter. She didn’t stop laughing until after Raven let them know over the comms that they should head to Titans Tower for debriefing.

“You are ridiculous.” Wonder Girl flew off of the roof and turned back to look at them. “You like each other. Kiss already, so I can kiss both of you without feeling guilty.”

She took off in the direction of California. Superboy and Wallflower shared a look.

“Race you to the Tower?” Superboy asked.

Wallflower did an unnecessary back flip off the roof and hovered in front of him. _-When I win, we’re watching the James Bond movies you missed.-_

“When I win, we’re making snickerdoodles.” Superboy deviated from their usual pre-race wagering to ask, “They made multiple James Bond movies while I was gone?”

_-Yup.-_ Wallflower grinned. _-Catch me if you can.-_

As usual, they tied.

* * *

Njeri “Nika” Kamau considered herself to be first and foremost a librarian. She had travelled all over the world, gathering and sharing stories. She’d published a few books of the stories she’d heard (with accurate citations) and some papers on oral storytelling. Then she’d met An Heng (“Call me Henry”), a cultural anthropologist doing fieldwork in Vlatava. Their marriage had been good until Nika had gotten pregnant and they’d moved to Heng’s hometown to raise their kid in a “stable” environment.

The only stable environment in Finley was the Rivervale Public Library when Nika was working. The local gangs had learned the hard way not to mess with her.

So, Nika knew stories, she knew people and she knew how to put together stories that people weren’t telling her. Her problem was that she was reluctant to do anything with the stories she put together. Her ex-husband’s second family and her paralyzed legs were both evidence of that.

In short, Nika knew her daughter was a superhero but had yet to say anything about it.

When Delilah came home two months after the resurrection of Superboy with a broad-shouldered boy with glasses and _Wonder Girl_ trying to hide her face under her hood, Nika knew her luck had run out.

_“Hi, Mom,”_ Delilah signed when Nika was looking at her.

_“Hi, sweet pea.”_ Nika transferred herself from the couch to her wheelchair. She didn’t miss Glasses giving Delilah a quick one-armed hug. _“Who are they?”_

_“This is C-a-s-s-i-e. This is C-o-n-n-e-r,”_ Delilah signed. She hesitated before adding, _“Friends.”_

Nika smiled. “Hello, Cassie. Hello, Conner. Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too, Ms. Kamau,” Conner said.

“So, what’s the occasion?” Nika asked. She turned her chair and rolled towards their apartment’s open kitchen. “Can I get you something to drink?”

“Some water would be great,” Cassie said. “I can get the glasses.”

Cassie navigated the kitchen with an ease that made it clear she’d been there before. Nika realized that at least a third of the sneaking out through the fire escape she’d heard from Delilah’s room had actually been sneaking someone else in. That was a little worrying.

Delilah accepted the glass of water that Cassie pressed into her hands and almost immediately put it down on the table. _“I’m b-i-s-e-x-u-a-l,”_ she signed. _“Maybe p-a-n-s-e-x-u-a-l.”_

That wasn’t a surprise. Nika remembered the back and forth teasing David and Delilah did over their crushes on Katie Gardner back in elementary school. It was a surprise when Delilah told her that she was dating Cassie _and_ Conner.

_“And I’m a superhero,”_ Delilah finished. She sat down on the arm of the couch and watched Nika with the skittishness of a cornered rabbit.

“Are you Dove or Wallflower? I wasn’t sure which,” Nika said.

Conner made a sound halfway between laughter and choking.

_“I look nothing like Dove,”_ Delilah signed. _“Dove is white. Her hair is white.”_

“Magic can change how a person looks,” Nika said. “You have similar mannerisms.”

_“Dove has vocal cords that are not permanently paralyzed,”_ Delilah signed.

Nika smiled. “Magic.”

_“Mom.”_ Delilah looked at her...boyfriend and girlfriend with wide eyes that screamed “Help me”.

“I’m so telling Dove about this,” Cassie said.

That wasn’t helping, Cassie.

“She’s Wallflower,” Conner said. “I’m Superboy.”

He didn’t introduce Cassie as Wonder Girl because people still knew who Wonder Girl was even after the universal upheavals that had happened over the years. There were bloggers and tabloid photographers dedicated to documenting her every move.

“Tell me about yourselves,” Nika said.

* * *

“Del’s mom is cool,” Conner said. “I was kind of expecting to get yelled at.”

“So was I,” Cassie said. She was flipping through TV channels absently while Conner checked the kitchen to see if Bart had left anything edible in the Tower. A Fox News segment with two people ranting about Superman (and Batman, and Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern, and pretty much every hero actually) popped up. Cassie changed the channel with a wince.

Conner returned to the couch empty-handed. Bart had evidentially eaten them out of house and home again. That was so normal it hurt.

“So, the team knows and Delilah’s mom knows. Are we telling my parental figures or yours next?” Cassie asked.

Conner frowned. “Polyamory is a thing on Themyscira, but your mom is terrifying. Superman is pretty open-minded and probably knows already, let’s be honest, but I have no idea how Ma will react.”

There was a rerun of _Space Trek: 2022_ on the SciFi Channel. Cassie put the remote down and let it play. Gar was so tiny when he was on the show. It was adorable.

“Why don’t we tell the superparents first and then get them to help us tell my mom and Ma?” Cassie suggested.

“I’m good with that if you and Del are,” Conner said.

Cassie texted Delilah to ask. She wasn’t expecting a quick response considering that Delilah and her mom had been having a serious heart to heart when she and Conner left their apartment, so it was a surprise when Delilah replied almost immediately.

_-Are you at the Tower?-_

Cassie sent another text saying that they were.

_-Be there in a minute.-_

Cassie would have asked if she could get groceries if Delilah hadn’t sounded like she wanted to punch Gizmo into San Francisco Bay. A few seconds later, Delilah entered the room through a window that had been half open and sat in Conner’s lap with a hiss like a disgruntled cat.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Conner asked.

_-My brother is an overprotective idiot,-_ Delilah said. _-Can we figure out what we’re going to tell Superman and Wonder Woman? Preferably before Heroes’ Day?-_

* * *

Heroes’ Day was not for heroes, not the living ones anyway. The twenty-eighth of August was a day for civilians to acknowledge the superheroes who had saved the world multiple times. For superheroes it was a day to remember their fallen comrades and cry a lot.

A significant number of the Teen Titans spent the day holed up in Titans Tower. Red Robin was somewhere in New York waging a one man war against every mob family in the city because Bats dealt with emotions by punching criminals in the face. Superboy was spending time with Ma Kent and some civilian friends in Smallville.

In the late afternoon, there was a small memorial ceremony in Titans Tower. They kept it short. Cyborg gave a speech about remembering the good times they’d had with their friends and keeping memories alive before setting them free to crowd into the memorial and tell stories among the statues of fallen Titans until everyone was crying again. 

Wallflower was looking up at Osiris’s statue when Starfire approached her. He’d died less than a year after they’d met. By all reports, Sobek had killed him. _-Do you remember that stupid little crocodile?-_ Wallflower asked. _-I should have let Persuader kill him.-_

Starfire put a hand on her shoulder. “He fooled all of us.”

_-Osiris was a good guy. He didn’t deserve to die like that, eaten by his best friend.-_ Wallflower choked on a sob. She was so tired of crying.

“No one does, Wallflower,” Starfire said gently. “It’s getting late. You should try to get some sleep.”

_-I will. I’m going to check on Beast Boy first.-_ Beast Boy had gone outside half an hour ago and hadn’t come back yet.

Starfire nodded. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

_-Goodnight.-_

Starfire left the memorial and Wallflower took one last look at Osiris’s statue before doing the same. She left the Tower and headed towards the ocean side where Beast Boy had likely gone if he wanted privacy. As she turned the corner she saw Beast Boy with his back to her, kissing a girl she couldn’t fully see. Just as she was about to turn away to give them privacy, invisible or not watching didn’t feel right, the girl tilted her head, revealing dirty blond hair and cracked, rotting skin pulling away from the skull beneath.

Wallflower felt her heartbeat increase. With growing up in Finley and her experiences as a Teen Titan she knew danger when she saw it. The dead-looking girl screamed danger. _-Beast Boy! Gar!-_

Beast Boy stepped back with a shake of his head. Why was Wallflower there?

“Gar, is something wrong?” Terra asked, voice full of concern.

“I…I don’t know,” Beast Boy said.

_-Gar, that isn’t Terra.-_

Beast Boy looked around. Great, Wallflower was invisible. What was she talking about? This was totally… He turned around and found himself staring into Terra’s shriveled eyes. He jumped back. 

**FEAR. LOVE.**

“I just want your heart, Gar,” Terra said sweetly. **“There’s nothing wrong with that.”**

Her hand shot forwards, but before it could touch him a tornado sprang up under her feet and tossed her into the ocean. His hair whipped around his ears and he felt Wallflower land beside him. “What was that?”

_-Not Terra.-_ Wallflower blinked, trying to get rid of the buzzing that was building up behind her eyes. _-A zombie…thing. Not Terra.-_

“We should tell—” The ground shook under them and Beast Boy stumbled forward. A figure rose from the water and the earthquake strengthened. Not-Terra’s face was pulled into a snarl as she directed the tremors. Titans Tower groaned.

_-Danger! Danger!-_ was all Wallflower was able to think. Beast Boy heard her. He turned into a cockroach. In the Tower, Cassie, who’d woken up after the quake started shaking the building with more force than Superman, shouted a warning into her communicator.

Red Robin would have thought that it was his own internal voice screaming at him if he didn’t automatically tune out that voice when he was in costume. He irrationally willed the Batplane to fly faster. Superboy shook his head and muttered “No duh,” as he punched Kal-L in the face.

Wallflower flew out towards Not-Terra, who was definitely not Terra since Terra couldn’t fly, and knocked her out of the sky just as the Tower gave one final groan.

A cloud of dust rose into the air. When it cleared the sad remains of Titans Tower cut out of the ground like a pile of broken tombstones.

Wallflower coughed out half a lung of water as she crawled up beside Beast Boy, who was back in his green human form. They stared at the wreckage. _-Cassie’s alive, but I don’t know about the others.-_

“We have to get them out!” Beast Boy started towards what was left of the Tower.

They were distracted by noises coming from the trees, and then another zombie thing tumbled towards them. A starbolt followed it and the robe it was wearing went up in flames. Beast Boy gawped. Was that Omen?

Wallflower nudged him. _-I think we have other problems.-_

“What makes you say that?” Beast Boy asked.

_-Terra’s back.-_

Beast Boy spun around and saw Terra, or whatever the zombie thing was, flying towards them. He froze and Wallflower sank up to her neck in sand.

He turned into an elephant.

Then Starfire blew past him and collided with Terra midair. “I never liked you, Terra, so this will be easy for me.”

The Terra-zombie went up in flames.

Starfire flew to the ground and pulled Wallflower out of the sand. The she looked at Beast Boy. “I’m sorry, Gar.”

Beast Boy shook his head at Starfire. “Don’t be. That thing, whatever it was, wasn’t Terra.”

_-And that definitely isn’t Omen,-_ Wallflower squeaked.

Beast Boy and Starfire put their heads on swivels and stared as Not-Omen finished reforming her body out of a charred husk. Why wouldn’t these things stay dead?

Wallflower and Starfire nearly collided with Cyborg as they went to try to kill the zombie thing again. Beast Boy moved to follow them, but was held back by the strong fingers digging into his elephant ankle. He turned into a ferret and slipped free. 

**“Get back here you little weasel!”** Not-Terra shrieked.

“Ferret actually,” Beast Boy muttered as he scampered over the mounds of earth that rose out of the ground.

Cyborg and Starfire were brought to their knees by Not-Omen almost immediately. They stared blankly with little smiles on their faces, completely immersed in the illusion that Not-Omen had created. Wallflower felt Not-Omen trying to break into her mind as well, but the few months of keeping Captain Marvel Junior’s and Osiris’s gods out of her head meant that Not-Omen had no chance of succeeding.

**“What’s wrong with you?”** Not-Omen mocked after her attempt to create an illusion for Wallflower failed. **“I guess you don’t have a mind, huh? You can’t think.”**

**RAGE. FEAR.**

_‘Wrong person,’_ Wallflower thought as she flew forwards and punched Not-Omen in the face. _‘You’re the one that doesn’t have a mind. You can’t think.’_ She was having trouble mentally pinning down Not-Omen for just that reason. _-Cyborg, Starfire, snap out of it!-_

**“Oh stop it,”** Not-Omen snapped. “ **They can’t hear you. Their minds are mine and they’re happy.”**

**RAGE.**

Wallflower gathered up everything she had and hit Not-Omen as hard as she could. _-GET OUT OF THEIR HEADS!-_

Not-Omen tumbled backwards, physically and mentally beaten to a pulp. Wallflower fell forwards, exhausted, just as Cyborg and Starfire came back into reality.

“What? Richard?” Starfire asked, looking around.

Cyborg clenched his fist. “The metal, the circuitry buzzing in my brain…This is what I have to call my reality.”

Wallflower felt someone coming up behind her and tensed. Then she relaxed when she sensed that it was Wonder Girl. _-Are the others alive?-_

“Of course. A little earthquake can’t hurt us.” Wonder Girl grabbed Wallflower’s arm and pulled her to her feet. “Get up, Wallflower. This isn’t over yet.”

_-Uh huh.-_ Wallflower nodded absently. _\- Someone better help Gar.-_

Gar needed help. “You might as well show your true self. This Tara guise isn’t working anymore,” he panted.

Not-Terra laughed as she finally cornered him and smashed him into the ground. Beast Boy reverted back to his human form as she stood over him. **“Aw, Gar. Your head is saying no, no, no. But your heart is saying yes, yes, _yes_. You don’t know how long I’ve waited for this. I finally get to _kill_ the Titans!”**

**“Don’t you mean ‘we’?”** a voice asked from the ocean.

The other Titans looked with horror at the giant wave that rose out of the water and the figures that were riding it. Wallflower recognized all of them. Dolphin and Aquagirl, Pantha and Wildebeest, all with grins on their rotting faces. And riding the crest of the wave…no, it couldn’t be. 

**“ _We_ get to kill the Titans,”** Tempest continued. **“ _TOGETHER.”_**

“Titans, go!” Donna shouted.

Her shout shook the rest of them out of their shock. Kid Flash zoomed over to help Beast Boy only to not be needed due to Beast Boy turning into a lion and ripping Not-Terra to shreds.

**“Hey, Wildebeest, want to break a wishbone?”** Pantha asked as she and Wildebeest grabbed Wonder Girl’s arms and flew into the sky.

Not-Omen rose again and Wallflower felt her connection with Wonder Girl being cut off as Not-Omen took over her mind. She couldn’t do anything about it, her brain was too tired. 

“Get out of her head, witch,” Donna ordered as she snapped Not-Omen’s neck. Not-Omen’s illusions faded.

Then the other things landed.

“Garth? No…not you too,” Cyborg said hopelessly as he faced his dead friend.

Tempest’s corpse grinned. **“What did you expect, Vic? We’re Titans, we _die_.”**

**“And then you bury us in the backyard like dogs,”** Aquagirl snapped, coming at Cyborg from the side.

**“What about you? Cat got your tongue?”** Dolphin asked as she knocked Wallflower to the ground. **“I was like you, quiet, shy, but at least I could scream.”**

Wallflower held up her hands and concentrated hurricane-force winds blew Dolphin backwards, past Starfire and Beast Boy who were fighting with Pantha and Wildebeest, respectively.

Dolphin caught herself and flew back towards Wallflower. **“I’ll bet no-one would miss you if you died, poor girl. No-one would care. How does that make you feel?”**

**RAGE. WILL.**

She knew that wasn’t true. Her family would care. Kid Flash and Red Robin would care. Wonder Girl and Superboy would care.

**WILL. RAGE. LOVE.**

**“Love?”** Dolphin laughed. **“Wonder Girl doesn’t love you. Superboy doesn’t love you. Even if they did, remember what got me killed? _Loving Garth_. I wasn’t even a real Titan!”**

_‘Shut up.’_ Wallflower punched Dolphin, but there wasn’t as much power behind it as there usually would have been. 

“They’re not real!” Donna cried from somewhere by the collapsed Tower. “Listen, everyone! _These aren’t the people we love_! They’re not real! They’re not real…”

**“I feel plenty real!”** a man yelled.

Wonder Girl yelled and Wallflower turned just in time to see her brought to the ground by the old Hawk. Dove crashed next to her, brought down by her sister.

Hawk was dead.

**RAGE.**

**“That’s what we want!”** Dolphin grabbed Wallflower around the waist and flew towards the ocean. Wallflower fought but was unable to get free of Dolphin’s stony grip.

They plunged into the water with a splash. For the second time that day water filled Wallflower’s nose and mouth. Dolphin held her under, unable to let go while the girl was still trying to get free.

Wallflower felt someone, no, not someone, another one of the zombie things, grab her arms. Dolphin grinned. She let go of Wallflower and plunged her hand into her chest.

Wallflower gasped, letting out the last air she had. Ribbons of blood filled the water as Dolphin tore out her heart.

**POWER LEVELS 0.02%.**

**DELILAH AN OF EARTH, RISE!**

* * *

Delilah stood on the steps of a marble temple. She looked into it, confused. She was sure that she had just been fighting some zombie thing that looked like a dead Titan. What was her name? Dolphin. What was she doing here?

It was cold. She rubbed her hands together and realized that she wasn’t in costume. The silver ring on her finger glowed faintly in the dim light.

“Don’t just stand there, girl,” a woman’s voice said from inside the temple. “Come in.”

Delilah hesitated.

“Now!” The woman’s voice echoed and the steps shook under Delilah’s feet.

Delilah hurried inside. The walls of the temple were lined with torches that caused the three waist high pillars at its centre to cast eerie shadows. An iron key on a chain lay on top of one pillar and a gold bracelet rested on another. The third was empty.

A tall woman with dark hair was standing behind the third pillar. She looked at Delilah with sharp blue eyes. “Give me my ring.”

“What?” Delilah blinked and put her hands around her throat. Was that her voice? Out loud, with sound? “Why am I here?” she tried asking. She jumped when the words came out of her mouth. “Who are you?”

“I am Hecate.” The woman, the goddess, came closer to Delilah. “You died. You must give your power back to me before you can pass on. Give me my ring.”

She died?

Okay, yeah, that made sense, considering.

“No.” Delilah shook her head. “No, I have to help my friends. They’re under attack. Let me help them, please. You’re a goddess.”

Hecate looked at her. “You would rather fight the Black Lanterns than pass on? You would rather go back and help your friends?”

“Yes!” Delilah exclaimed.

Hecate closed her eyes. “I can send you back, but in return I would have you serve me.”

“For how long?” Delilah asked.

“As long as I wish.”

Delilah and the goddess of magic looked at each other. It was a bad deal. It was such a bad deal. Delilah knew it was a bad deal. Every magic user she’d ever talked to would yell at her for even considering it.

But.

“Done,” Delilah said. “Send me back.”

Hecate’s eyes glowed. “As you wish.”

* * *

**“First Conner, now me,”** Black Lantern Wallflower grinned as she took Wonder Girl by the throat. **“You just have awful luck.”**

“You’re not Delilah,” Wonder Girl choked out. Black Lantern Wallflower rolled her sunken eyes and tightened her grip.

Around them the battled ranged on. Every living hero and Lantern was engaged in the fight against the Black Lanterns. Some of them were ganged up on, two or three Black Lanterns against one of the living. No one was able to help them except for Dove and she couldn’t be everywhere at once.

Wonder Girl’s vision was beginning to go black when Black Lantern Wallflower suddenly let go of her throat. Wonder Girl gasped and took in as much air as she could before going back on the offensive.

_-Cassie, stop! It’s me, it’s Delilah.-_

Wonder Girl’s fist paused briefly in midair. “You may have finally figured out how to use her powers, but you’re still not her.”

Delilah winced as Wonder Girl’s punch broke her nose. It didn’t hurt and it quickly knitted back together since her body was a Black Lantern, but it was still unnerving.

Oh, right. She was a Black Lantern.

Delilah used her ring to push Wonder Girl off her and then formed two hands that ripped another nearby Black Lantern to pieces. If it was a normal Lantern ring of any kind she would not have been able to use it so quickly, but it was a Black Lantern ring and she was dead so normal didn’t qualify.

When did it ever?

Wonder Girl watched with wide eyes as the Black Lantern turned on its comrades. She blinked and then flew to help the other living heroes. If Black Lantern Wallflower was attacking other Black Lanterns then maybe Delilah actually was back. If not then at least their numbers were being thinned.

Delilah didn’t know how long she fought for. Black Lanterns kept coming back, so she kept tearing them apart. She thought she saw Superboy once, and Kid Flash, but in a blink they were gone. She could only see outlines anyway. Outlines of people filled with colours or Black Lanterns outlined white on the blackness of everything else.

Then there came a burning white light. It was the first and only thing Delilah had felt since Hecate had sent her back into her body that actually hurt. The light emanated from many points, tearing through her painfully.

_-It’s the White Lanterns,-_ the goddess told her. _–It’s time to go, Delilah.-_

_-Just one more minute,-_ Delilah said. She closed her eyes and reached for Wonder Girl and Superboy’s minds.

_-I love you,-_ she whispered. _-Goodbye.-_

The white light strengthened and she was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some dialogue in this chapter comes from _Blackest Night: Titans_ written by J.T. Krul.


	7. In Which There's An Ending

To most people, Valhalla Cemetery was silent at night. Conner Kent wasn’t most people. For him it was far from silent. He knew that he was alone in the cemetery because he didn’t hear any human heartbeats, just the faster hums belonging to birds and squirrels. The slight breeze gently ruffling the leaves sounded like crashing waves.

It was quiet, not silent. You couldn’t break quiet.

“Hi, Delilah.” Conner bent down and placed the bunch of white roses in front of the stone plinth, being careful not to cover either of Delilah’s names. “These are from Cassie. I tried to get her to come but…”

He sighed and looked up at the face of Wallflower’s statue. If she hadn’t been made of metal he could have sworn that she was going to tell him that he was being stupid, no one could make Cassie do anything unless she wanted to, and they should go for a fly to clear his head. She would have a statue when Titians Tower was repaired, like all fallen Titans, but he doubted it was possible to get her right twice. She was signing “fly”, as for an airplane, which was the sign she used for their sort of flying. Conner thought that it also made it look like she was directing the air, probably to try to push him over.

“You, Holly, losing you like this…It’s just hard on all of us, you know?” He laughed despite himself. “Of course you know. It’s nothing new for us, right? And if you were here right now you’d say something like ‘It’s not always going to feel like this, Conner’ or ‘It’ll get better, Conner, promise’, but you’re not here.”

His voice cracked. “Everything is wrong.”

He stared up at the statue, not bothering to wipe away the tears running down his cheeks. It wasn’t like there was anyone around to see him crying.

“Cassie and I went to see your family,” he choked out, “your mom and your brother. Just going there, telling them you were dead, that’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done. The look on your mom’s face…You know how you say she knows everything? She knew but she was hoping and then we came in and wrecked it.”

He shook his head. “And your friend Osiris, he came back but his family’s gone. Cassie tried to get him to stay with us but he left. He came to see you, right? You were his family. _We_ were family.”

Conner gave up on trying to talk coherently and just stood in front of the grave crying for several minutes. Eventually he wiped his tears away and turned on his heel to leave the cemetery, not even trying to force out a goodbye.

On his way towards the gate he passed by Dove and Hawk’s graves. He wasn’t going to stop, but out of the corner of his eye he saw a white figure crouching in front of Dove’s statue. He turned around.

“Hey!” he shouted. “What are you doing?”

The figure stood, holding something tightly in one dirt covered hand. “None of your business,” they whispered roughly.

“I think it is,” Conner said. “That’s my friend’s grave.”

“Are you a superhero then?” the person, a woman judging by her voice, asked. “Go home. I’m done here anyway.”

Conner stepped towards the woman in white. “Not until you put back whatever you took.”

The woman’s hand tightened around the object she was holding. Conner looked with his x-ray vision and saw that it was some sort of ring, maybe something that a visitor had left as a gift to Dove.

“I need it,” she whispered.

“You need to steal from a dead man?” Conner clenched his fists. He didn’t feel like fighting, but Rao help him, after everything that had happened with the Black Lanterns he wouldn’t stand for anyone messing with a superhero’s grave. “Give it back.”

The woman stiffened. “I can’t do that.”

She turned around and pushed back her hood. Conner stumbled backwards when he saw the face that was revealed.

Delilah smiled sadly. “I’m sorry, Conner.”

* * *

Valhalla Cemetery was a nice place to be buried.

Delilah had been pretty sure that her grave wouldn’t be there. She hadn’t been a well-known hero, that was a side effect of being invisible ninety-nine percent of the time, and Valhalla was getting pretty full even with all the metahuman heroes being interred under the Hall of Justice, so she was surprised when she saw the statue of Wallflower at the head of her grave.

“This is unnerving,” she muttered, looking up at her masked face.

“Not as unnerving as hearing your voice somewhere that isn’t inside my head,” Conner said.

Delilah shrugged. “It’s weird for me too. This isn’t my body, it came with the job.”

“What job?” Conner asked. “Why…why didn’t you tell us you were alive?”

To answer his first question, Delilah opened her hand and allowed him to clearly see the White Lantern ring she had taken from Dan Hall’s grave. It matched the one she was wearing in place of Hecate’s ring. That one had come from a grave on Mars. She hoped that wasn’t going to be a trend. Going to graveyards to collect all twelve rings would be dead depressing.

Ha, ha.

Conner looked at the rings and shook his head. “I thought only Deadman still has one of those.”

“Objects this powerful don’t just disappear,” Delilah said. “These are Hawk’s and Martian Manhunter’s. And I…I’m not alive Conner.”

“But-”

“Can you hear my heartbeat?”

He couldn’t.

Delilah tapped the White Lantern ring she was wearing, which pulsed with dim light. “I’m on loan from Hecate. Magic is apparently part of Life.”

Conner shook his head. Magic wasn’t his favourite thing, but he understood that it was necessary for the balance of the universe and stuff like that. If Delilah was working for, owned by it sounded like, Hecate, the goddess of magic, well that made him like magic even less.

“Can’t you come home?” he asked, not expecting a positive answer.

Delilah blinked rapidly like she was trying not to cry. “I wish I could, Conner. I miss you.”

There was a pause after that. A silence between them while they both tried to figure out if the form of “you” she used was meant to be singular or plural, and an exchange of slight nods when they agreed that it didn’t matter.

Delilah cracked a small smile. “If I don’t finish this mission the world will end. That wouldn’t be good for the team’s PR.”

Conner couldn’t stop himself from laughing. Bad PR was something the Teen Titans had dealt with a bit too often.

“Can you come back to the tower when it’s over?” he asked. “Will _she_ let you?”

“We’ll see each other again,” Delilah said. “I know it. I’m kind of psychic now.”

Conner laughed again. “That’s encouraging.

Delilah smiled, but her smile soon turned into a grimace. “This ring is trying to burn my finger off.”

“You have to go?” Conner guessed.

Delilah nodded. She hesitated before moving closer to Conner and kissing him firmly on the lips. They held each other for a moment. Delilah’s skin was ice cold.

“Give Cassie a kiss from me,” she murmured, “and promise you’ll stop her from trying to resurrect me?”

“I promise.”

Delilah stepped back and took one last look at her grave. “Thanks for the flowers. They’re my favourite.”

“I know,” Conner said.

White light flowed out of Martian Manhunter’s ring, turning the graveyard as bright as day. It swirled around Delilah and then disappeared, taking her with it.

Conner stood at her grave for a little longer. Then he turned and left the cemetery.


End file.
